Leafs win in overtime
TORONTO John Tavares let out a big sigh of relief during Wednesday’s player introductions.
The Toronto Maple Leafs did the same thing after an ugly win.
Auston Matthews scored his second goal of the night at 1:01 of overtime as the Leafs squeezed out a 3-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL’s regular-season opener.
Matthews took a feed from Patrick Marleau off the rush and beat Carey Price upstairs past the blocker to send the crowd at Scotiabank Arena into a frenzy.
“It was a perfect pass,” Matthews said. “Patty had me there and I was able to just get it over him.”
But for much of the game, it was Montreal that had the upper hand as Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen was forced to make 34 saves, including 15 in the third period, to bail out his teammates on a number of sloppy sequences.
“They kind of outworked us,” Matthews said. “A lot we can learn moving forward.”
Nazem Kadri added two assists for the Leafs, who enter the season with sky-high expectations.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, are loathe to use the word “rebuild” despite the trade of captain Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights, but showed well in their first game of 2018-19.
“Definitely encouraging, the effort that every single player made,” said Price, who made 23 saves. “If we keep playing like that with that type of effort I think we’re going to get rewarded.” Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Shaw scored for Montreal, while Max Domi — the son of former Leafs tough guy Tie Domi — had two assists in his debut with the Canadiens.
CAPITALS 7, BRUINS 0
WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin and the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals opened their title defence with a thrashing of the Boston Bruins. After watching the franchise’s first Stanley Cup banner ascend to the rafters, T.J. Oshie opened the scoring just 24 seconds in, and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the first of his two goals 1 1/2 minutes later to get the rout off to a fast start. It was the fastest first two goals by a defending champion in a season opener in NHL history — and it was just the beginning.
By midway through the second period, the Capitals chased goalie Tuukka Rask with five goals on 19 shots and ignited chants of “Back-to-back! Back-toback!” from the fired-up crowd. Braden Holtby stopped all 25 shots he faced to improve to 15-2 with four shutouts against the Bruins.
In Todd Reirden’s first game as coach, the Capitals beat the Bruins for the 13th consecutive time.