Blackhawks open up with rout of Penguins
Brandon Saad scored three times in his return to the Blackhawks and Ryan Hartman had a goal and four assists, leading the way to a 10-1 pounding of the Pittsburgh Penguins last night in Chicago.
Nick Schmaltz added two goals and an assist as Chicago kicked off its season in style with a runaway victory against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. Patrick Kane also had a goal and three assists in the Blackhawks’ highest scoring game since a 10-1 win against Winnipeg on Oct. 12, 1988.
Pittsburgh was coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to St. Louis in its season opener a night earlier, and it looked every bit like a team on the second half of back-to-back nights. Antti Niemi was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots in his Penguins debut, forcing Matt Murray to come in after he took the loss against the Blues.
Richard Panik, Patrick Sharp and Brent Seabrook also scored for Chicago, and Corey Crawford made 28 saves.
Sidney Crosby found Phil Kessel for a Penguins powerplay goal at 2:05 of the second period, but Chicago already had a 5-0 lead at that point. It was the most goals allowed by Pittsburgh since a 10-8 loss to San Jose on Jan. 13, 1996.
Canadiens 3, Sabres 2 — Phillip Danault forced overtime by scoring a shorthanded goal on a wraparound with 11:59 left in the third period and Jonathan Drouin scored the lone shootout goal in rallying visiting Montreal past Buffalo.
Carey Price stopped 43 shots through overtime and all three shootout attempts. Max Pacioretty scored the first goal for the Canadiens, and Drouin also had an assist in his first game with Montreal since he was acquired in an offseason trade with Tampa Bay.
Jason Pominville scored twice in his first game back with Buffalo since being reacquired in a trade with Minnesota in June. Robin Lehner stopped 38 shots and the Sabres earned one point in Phil Housley’s debut as coach.
Red Wings 4, Wild 2 — Henrik Zetterberg and Martin Frk scored in the third period to give host Detroit the win against Minnesota in the first regular-season game at Little Caesars Arena.
Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin scored 23 seconds apart in the second period for the Red Wings, who rallied after blowing a 2-0 lead early in the third. Joel Eriksson Ek and Chris Stewart scored 48 seconds apart to tie it, and then Zetterberg put Detroit back ahead to stay with 12:53 remaining.
Capitals 5, Senators 4 — Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick in a 6:33 span in the third period and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the shootout winner in Washington’s seasonopening win against host Ottawa.
Brett Connolly also scored for the Capitals, and Braden Holtby made 28 saves.
Mark Stone struck twice for the Senators, Derick Brassard had a goal and two assists, Chris Wideman also scored and Craig Anderson made 24 saves.
Avalanche 4, Rangers 2 — Semyon Varlamov stopped 37 shots, Tyson Barrie scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and visiting Colorado doubled up New York in their opener.
Kings 2, Flyers 0 — Jonathan Quick made 35 saves in the first season-opening shutout of his career, and host Los Angeles won in new head coach John Stevens’ debut, beating Philadelphia.
Ducks 5, Coyotes 4 — Richard Rakell broke a tie with 3:30 left and host Anaheim overcame a threegoal deficit to beat Arizona.