Matthews’ OT goal moves Leafs to 3-0
Auston Matthews scored in overtime and the Maple Leafs came from behind to beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3, last night in Toronto and remain perfect on the young season.
Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown and James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won their first three games.
Jan Rutta, Jonathan Toews and Richard Panik had goals for the Blackhawks.
Frederik Andersen made 18 saves for the win while Anton Forsberg stopped 39 shots on the losing side.
Outside of the opening three minutes, the first period belonged to the Blackhawks, and they went into the intermission up 2-0. It could have been a three-goal edge for Chicago if Andersen didn’t turn away Patrick Sharp on a breakaway late.
Toronto was behind 2-1 after 40 minutes. Forsberg’s play allowed the Blackhawks to restore their two-goal lead 7:52 into the third, but Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock started shuffling his lines late in the third and it paid off with two goals in less than three minutes.
Lightning 4, Capitals 3 — In Tampa, Nikita Kucherov got his second goal of the game on a power play in overtime, Alex Ovechkin was held pointless and Tampa Bay edged Washington.
Kucherov’s winner at 3:08 came after the Capitals were assessed a too many men on the ice penalty.
Ovechkin entered with seven goals in Washington’s first two games this season.
Tampa Bay got goals from Alex Killorn, and Chris Kunitz, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.
T.J. Oshie had two goals and an assist, while Nicklas Backstrom added a goal and two assists for the Capitals. Philipp Grubauer stopped 36 shots in his first game of the season.
Kucherov tied it at 3 on an in-close backhander at 10:46 of the third.
Devils 6, Sabres 2 — Rookie Jesper Bratt and Marcus Johansson each registered two goals and an assist for visiting New Jersey in a win against Buffalo.
Brian Gibbons added a goal and an assist, Taylor Hall had two assists and Stefan Noesen also scored. New Jersey is 2-0 for the first time in three seasons. No. 1 overall pick Nico Hischier recorded his first NHL point, on an assist, and Cory Schneider made 23 saves for the Devils.
Evander Kane scored both goals for the winless Sabres, who were booed off the ice after all three periods. Chad Johnson stopped 16-of-22 shots before being replaced by Robin Lehner (nine saves) in the third period.
Blues 3, Islanders 2 — Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko scored shootout goals as St. Louis improved to 3-0 to start the season with the win against host New York, which rallied behind third-period goals from Andrew Ladd and Anders Lee, at the 19-minute mark, to force overtime.
Tarasenko scored twice in the second period for the Blues, who were seemingly in control until Ladd scored at 13:04 of the third period to ruin a shutout bid by Jake Allen (40 saves), who has all three wins for St. Louis.
The Islanders’ Thomas Greiss made 33 saves.
Jets 5, Oilers 2 — Nikolaj Ehlers had a hat trick and an assist and visiting Winnipeg captured its first win of the season by beating Edmonton.
Mark Scheifele and Dmitry Kulikov also scored for the Jets.
Flames 2, Ducks 0 — Mike Smith made 43 saves and Calgary ended a 25-game skid in Anaheim.
Calgary got goals from Sean Monahan and Mikael Backlund. It hadn’t won at Anaheim since Jan. 19, 2004.
Elsewhere in the NHL — Minnesota Wild left winger Zach Parise returned to practice after missing the first two games of the season because of an undisclosed injury. The Wild play on Thursday at Chicago, with the home opener looming Saturday against Columbus, but Neither Parise nor coach Bruce Boudreau would commit to returning for a particular game . . . .
The New York Rangers claimed Adam Cracknell off waivers from the Dallas Stars.