Leafs ride strong second to victory
John Tavares and Mitch Marner scored in a dominant second period as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 on Monday.
Frederik Andersen made 27 saves for Toronto (3-1-0) in first of 10 meetings between the North Division rivals in the abbreviated 2020-2021 season. Marner added his second of the night into an empty net with 22.6 seconds left.
Kyle Connor replied for Winnipeg (1-1-0), which got 35 stops from Connor Hellebuyck inside an empty Scotiabank
Arena because of COVID-19 protocols.
The Jets were minus sniper Patrik Laine, who sat out with an upper-body injury and is listed as day-to-day.
Following an even first period that saw both teams force good saves from Hellebuyck and Andersen, the ice tilted heavily in Toronto’s favour in the second.
The Leafs got the game’s first goal at 5:28 at the tail end of a power play when Hellebuyck kicked Jake Muzzin’s point shot out to William Nylander, who quickly fed Tavares in the slot for him to bury his third of the season with the Jets goalie out of position.
ISLANDERS 1, BRUINS 0 UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Semyon Varlamov stopped 27 shots for his 29th career shutout, Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored with 4:09 remaining, and New York beat Boston in their home opener.
Adam Pelech fired a shot from the left point and Boston’s Patrice Bergeron deflected the puck up in air. Pageau batted it in past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask to put the Islanders on the board.
Varlamov, who missed Saturday’s game against the Rangers after he took a puck off his neck in pregame warmups, got his second shutout in two starts this season. He had 24 saves in a 4-0 win against the Rangers last Thursday.
BLUE JACKETS 3, RED WINGS 2
Alexandre Texier and PierreLuc Dubois scored 1:16 apart early in the third period to give Columbus a two-goal lead and they held on to beat Detroit.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored late in the second period and Joonas Korpisalo finished with 35 saves in the Blue Jackets’ first win of the season.
Detroit’s Bobby Ryan scored twice and Thomas Greiss stopped 26 shots.
Texier’s wraparound goal 5:10 into the third put the Blue Jackets ahead for the first time. Dubois beat Greiss on a breakaway at the 6:26 mark to help them win after dropping the first two games of the season at Nashville.