Hockey’s back: Leafs top Habs in overtime to open season
TORONTO
Morgan Rielly scored at 3:24 of overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 to raise the curtain on the NHL’s abbreviated 56-game season Wednesday night.
The defenceman 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 glorious chances to grab the extra point.
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 Leafs, who got 28 saves from Frederik Andersen.
Josh Anderson replied with two in his debut for Montreal, while Nick Suzuki, with a goal and an assist, and Tomas Tatar provided the rest of the offence for the visitors. Jonathan Drouin and Jeff Petry each added two assists inside an empty Scotiabank Arena because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Price made 29 stops in the first of 10 meetings between the clubs in 2021.
After the Leafs erased a twogoal deficit late in the second period, Anderson registered his second of the night 1:03 into the third by cutting around Tavares and firing a shot that beat the Leafs netminder under his right arm to make it 4-3.
Toronto’s Andersen then denied Montreal’s Anderson of his first-career hat trick on the doorstep a few minutes later after Suzuki stepped past Rielly.
FLYERS 6, PENGUINS 3
PHILADELPHIA — Joel Farabee had a goal and three assists, Michael Raffl, James van Riemsdyk and Nolan Patrick also scored to lead the Philadelphia to a win over Pittsburgh on Wednesday in the first game of the NHL season.
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.
Crosby’s goal was about expected against a team he has tortured like no other. He was greeted by strange silence in the empty arena — 20,000 Flyers fans generally lose their minds chanting “Crosby sucks!” — and he simply skated away without a boo to be heard after his tying goal.