Lightning begin defense of title in style
TAMPA, Fla. — Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists in his return to the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup, and the defending Stanley Cup champions opened the season with 5-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
Stamkos underwent surgery in early March that kept him out of all but one game in the playoffs before undergoing surgery again in October to repair the same core muscle. Wednesday’s game was the first full game Stamkos played since Feb. 22.
“It’s the best I’ve felt in a long time,” Stamkos said. “It’s tough sometimes in camp and those scrimmages you only have 10 days to get ready. Then you get into real action the instincts take over and you want to be out there making plays. But I felt good, I feel like I’m just going to build off of that and continue to get stronger.”
The Lightning captain has points in 17 consecutive games — including 14 goals.
Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, Ondrej Palat and Mathieu Joseph also scored to help Tampa Bay win its seventh consecutive season opener. Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn each finished with two assists. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 23 saves.
Dylan Strome scored for Chicago, and Malcolm Subban stopped 28 shots.
Tampa Bay raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening period on Palat’s rebound goal on the power play, Joseph’s redirect that bounced in off Subban, and Cirelli’s deflection of Erik Cernak’s
shot.
Stamkos made it 4-0 with a power play goal in the second, one-timing a shot from the left circle where he’s scored so many goals during his career.
“Really happy that he was able to score,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You really have to hand it to him for sticking with it and battling with everything he’s had to to get back into the game.”
Point one-timed Stamkos’ pass from the slot in the third that made it 5-0 before Strome broke the shutout bid with a powerplay goal that bounced in off the skate of Vasilevskiy with 3:24 remaining.
“Certainly not the way we wanted to start the year,” Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We gave up too many chances and too many goals.”
MAPLE LEAFS 5, CANADIENS 4
Morgan Rielly scored at 3:24 of overtime to give host Toronto a victory over Montreal.
Rielly took a feed from Toronto captain John Tavares on a 2-on-1 to beat Montreal goalie Carey Price and end a chaotic extra period where both teams had chances to get the victory.
William Nylander had two goals and an assist for Toronto, while Tavares added a goal and two assists. Jimmy Vesey chipped in with his first goal for the Maple Leafs, and Frederik Andersen had 28 saves.
Josh Anderson scored twice in his debut for Montreal, while Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist, and Tomas Tatar also scored. Jonathan Drouin and Jeff Petry each added two assists inside an empty Scotiabank Arena because of COVID-19 restrictions. Price finished with 29 saves in the first of 10 meetings between the clubs in 2021.
FLYERS 6, PENGUINS 3
Joel Farabee had a goal and three assists, Michael Raffl, James van Riemsdyk and Nolan Patrick also scored to lead Philadelphia past visiting Pittsburgh.
The unconventional opener was decided when Raffl scored from the slot and beat Tristan Jarry 5:37 into the third for a 4-3 lead and the only cheers for the go-ahead goal came from Flyers fans watching at home.
The Flyers pounced from there — Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes scored 20 seconds apart to turn this one into a rout.
Mark Jankowski and Sidney Crosby scored for the Penguins.
BLUES 4, AVALANCHE 1
Oskar Sundqvist had two goals and Jordan Binnington stopped 26 of 27 shots to lead St. Louis to victory at Denver.
After Andre Burakovsky gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with a power play goal 4:55 into the game, Sundqvist tied it later in the first period and Jordan Kyrou put the Blues ahead to stay at 13:15 of the first.
CANUCKS 5, OILERS 3
Adam Gaudette scored to break a third-period tie as Vancouver won at Edmonton.
Gaudette’s goal put the Canucks ahead 3-2, and Brock Boeser added two insurance goals.