Olofsson leads Sabres by Lightning
Sabres 5, Lightning 1: Victor Olofsson scored two goals and Craig Anderson made 35 saves for host Buffalo in a win against Tampa Bay on Monday night.
Drake Caggiula, Vinnie Hinostroza and Robert Hagg also scored for the Sabres in their first win against the Lightning in eight meetings. Tage Thompson had two assists.
Bouncing back from a 2-1 overtime loss in their road opener at New Jersey on Saturday, the Sabres continued their strong start by beating the two-time Stanley Cup champions to improve to 41-0 at home.
Alex Killorn had a goal for the Lightning, who opened a back-to-back trip with their first road loss of the season. Brian Elliott stopped 20 shots in his Tampa Bay debut.
Caggiula bounced in a wrist shot off the far post to beat Elliott on an unassisted breakaway with 38 seconds left in the second, giving the Sabres a 2-1 lead during a period when they did not have a shot on goal for the first 13 minutes.
Hinostroza added on his first goal with the Sabres in the early stages of the third period, taking the puck from Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Joseph and beating Elliott with a wrist shot from the high slot.
Panthers 5, Coyotes 3: Frank Vatrano and Joe Thornton each scored their first goals of the season and host Florida stretched its unbeaten streak to six games with a cictory over winless Arizona.
Anthony Duclair, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad also scored goals for the Panthers.
Spencer Knight made 18 saves. Brandon Montour had two assists.
Liam O’Brien and Phil Kessel scored late goals for the Coyotes. Clayton Keller also scored a goal.
Florida’s 6-0-0 record extends the best start in franchise history and is the first 6-0-0 start in the NHL since Montreal in 2015-16.
The Arizona loss marks the second time in the franchise’s 42 seasons that they don’t have a win after six games (were 0-5-1 to start 2017-18 season).
Flames 5, Rangers 1: Andrew Mangiapane scored twice and visting Calgary beat the New York Rangers for their third straight win.
Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund each had a goal and an assist, and Christopher Tanev also scored for Calgary. Johnny Gaudreau got his seventh assist of the season and Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 shots.
Dryden Hunt scored for the Rangers, who had won four straight – all on the road. Igor Shesterkin, making his fifth start, finished with 32 saves.
Trailing 2-0 after 40 minutes, the Rangers got on the scoreboard early in the third period. Markstrom stopped the initial shot by Jacob Trouba, but Hunt corralled a rebound in front and put it past the goalie for his first of the season at 5:25.
Coleman restored Calgary’s two-goal lead less than three minutes later as he backhanded the rebound of his own shot past Shesterkin for his second.
Blue Jackets 4, Stars 1: Gregory Hofmann scored his first NHL goal and added an assist, leading host Columbus to a win over Dallas.
Oliver Bjorkstrand added a goal and his 100th career assist, and Zach Werenski had a goal and an assist as Columbus won for the second time in three games. Alexandre Texier scored into an empty net.
Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars. Elvis Merzlikins stopped 31 shots and is unbeaten in four starts this season. He turned back a barrage of shots and cleared the zone with a confident poke check, carrying a shutout bid into the final three minutes of the game.
Bjorkstrand put Columbus
on
the board early, taking a pass from Jack Roslovic and Hofmann at 5:53 of the first period and beating Braden Holtby on the rush for his third goal and teamleading eighth point.
Hurricanes 4, Maple Leafs 1: Frederik Andersen made 24 saves against his former team and unbeaten host Carolina matched the best five-game start in franchise history by defeating struggling Toronto.
Sebastian Aho, Steven Lorentz and Nino Niederreiter scored second-period goals for the Hurricanes. Andrei Svechnikov added an empty-netter and Jaccob Slavin had two assists.
Carolina also was 5-0-0 in 2019-20. Jack Campbell stopped 31 shots for Toronto, which is 0-3-1 in its past four games and has managed just one goal in three of them.
Capitals 7, Senators 5: T.J. Oshie picked up his fifth career hat trick as visiting Washington beat Ottawa.
Alex Ovechkin extended his point streak to six games with his sixth and seventh goals of the season for Washington. Nick Jensen and John Carlson also scored as Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves for the win.
Drake Batherson led the way for Ottawa with his first career hat trick, while Chris Tierney and Josh Norris also chipped in.
Anton Forsberg started the game for Ottawa, but was pulled after allowing four goals on 16 shots. Filip Gustavsson came in late in the first period and finished the game allowing three goals on 15 shots.
Down 6-4 to start the third, Batherson made it a one-goal game with his third of the night at the six-minute mark, but Ovechkin regained the twogoal cushion with his second of the game midway through the period.
Blues 2, Kings 0: Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals and Ville Husso recorded his second career shutout as host St. Louis remained undefeated in five games with a victory over Los Angeles.
The Blues are off to a 5-0 start for the first time in franchise history. The Kings haven’t won since their season opener.
It was Tarasenko’s first multi-goal game since Feb. 14, 2019. Husso stopped 34 shots in making his first start of the season between the pipes.
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick had 32 saves in falling to 12-16-3 lifetime against St. Louis.