Kadri, Leafs tip Islanders
Nazem Kadri had his first goal of the season and John Tavares, Kasperi Kapanen and Tyler Ennis also scored in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 4-2 victory against the Jets last night in Winnipeg.
Frederik Andersen stopped 38 shots to help Toronto improve to 7-3-0.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves. The Jets were 4-1-1 on a six-game homestand, leaving them 6-3-1 overall.
The teams will meet again Saturday night in Toronto.
Kapanen opened the scoring with 5:30 left in the first period, threaded a shot through traffic.
Ennis made it 2-0 at 2:25 of the second, redirecting a point shot from Josh Leivo. Kadri got a clean look and slipped a wrister past Hellebuyck’s glove to make it 3-0 midway through the period.
The Jets finally got on the board at 4:57 of the third period when Ehlers flipped one past Andersen from just in front of the Toronto net for his first of the season. Scheifele one-timed a shot from the point at 6:28 on a power play.
But Tavares won a duel in the crease with Winnipeg defenseman Dustin Byfuglien over a loose puck sent in from Mitch Marner, and slipped it over the goal line at 8:28.
Panthers 3, Islanders 2 — Mike Hoffman scored a power-play goal 33 seconds into overtime and lifted Florida past New York in Brooklyn.
The winning goal was the fourth of the season for Hoffman. Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle added goals for the Panthers, who won for just the second time this season. Backup goaltender James Reimer made 20 saves in his first win of the year.
Frank Vatrano and Evgenii Dadonov scored for the Islanders. Robin Lehner finished with 38 saves on 41 shots.
The Panthers were called for delay of game with just under three minutes left in regulation, but the Islanders wiped out that power play when Mathew Barzal was sent off for interference at 18:35. That penalty led to the power-play chance in overtime and Hoffman’s goal that completed a three-goal rally by the Panthers.
Nelson and Eberle staked the Islanders to a 2-0 lead heading into the third period, but the Panthers struck twice on goals by Vatrano and Dadonov to tie.
Nelson opened the scoring late in the first with his third goal of the season at 18:36.
Eberle increased the lead at 11:42 of the second against Reimer, finishing off a pretty passing sequence with his first goal of the season. Barzal and Anders Lee assisted.
Last season’s Calder Trophy winner as the league’s top rookie, Barzal leads the Islanders with eight points through the team’s first eight games.
The Islanders were coming off four-game road trip in which they lost three times.
Elsewhere in the NHL — Ottawa Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki has been suspended for one game without pay by the NHL for elbowing Bruins defenseman Urho Vaakanainen on Tuesday night.
The NHL announced the suspension last night.
The penalty will cost Borowiecki $6,452.