NHL-best Leafs rout Red Wings
Curtis McElhinney made 29 saves in his season debut and the Maple Leafs scored four times in the first period in a 6-3 victory against the Detroit Red Wings last night in Toronto.
Starting in place of Frederik Andersen, McElhinney stopped 14 shots in the third period to hold off the Red Wings.
Nazem Kadri, Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews, Connor Brown, Morgan Rielly and William Nylander scored to help Toronto improve to an NHL-best 6-1-0. The Maple Leafs were coming off a 2-0 victory at Washington on Tuesday night.
Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar, Jonathan Ericsson scored for the Red Wings, and Nick Jensen had three assists.
Jimmy Howard gave up three goals on four shots before getting yanked in favor of Petr Mrazek late in the first period.
Toronto scored on its first two shots and four of its first five.
The Leafs opened the scoring after catching the Wings on a bad line change. Kadri took a long pass from Ron Hainsey, walked in and beat Howard over the blocker at 5:56. Hyman scored 44 seconds later, tipping Rielly’s shot past Howard.
Zetterberg put Detroit on the board with 7:50 to play in the first after getting McElhinney to bite on a fake before skating around the net and finishing on a wraparound with the netminder out of position.
Matt Martin didn’t record Toronto’s third shot on net until near the 14-minute mark of the period, and it turned out to be the only save of the night for Howard.
Blues 5, Blackhawks 2 — Jaden Schwartz had his third career hat trick to help host St. Louis rout Chicago.
Schwartz has four goals and six assists this season and has at least one point in six of the Blues’ first seven games. It was his 51st career multi-point game and fourth this season.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and an assist, Kyle Brodziak also scored, and Jake Allen made 22 saves. The Blues snapped a twogame losing streak
Duncan Keith and Ryan Hartman had late goals for Blackhawks.
Elsewhere in the NHL — Former NHL agent Stacey McAlpine has been charged with fraud in a case involving former Ottawa Senators players Dany Heatley and Chris Phillips. Winnipeg police said the 54-year-old McAlpine bilked Heatley and Phillips out of $12 million between January 2004 and June 2011. McAlpine is charged with two counts of fraud more than $5,000, two counts of theft more than $5,000 and laundering proceeds of crime.