Sharks bite: Kahkonen’s shutout ends losing skein
MONTREAL — Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 28 shots for his first shutout for San Jose and the Sharks beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-0 on Tuesday night.
Tomas Hertl scored twice in the third period, including an empty-netter. Matt Nieto and Logan Couture also scored as the Sharks opened a four-game set against Eastern Conference teams by snapping a three-game losing streak.
Kahkonen, re-signed in the summer after playing 36 games last season for Minnesota and San Jose, had allowed four or more goals in four of his last five games. Filling in for injured starter James Reimer, Kahkonen recorded his first shutout since March 16, 2021.
Jake Allen made 20 saves for Montreal, which was 0 for 6 on the power play against San Jose’s league-leading penalty kill unit.
■ Capitals 5, Canucks 1: At Vancouver, British Columbia, Alex Ovechkin scored twice, passing Wayne Gretzky for the most road goals in NHL history, and Washington beat the Canucks. Ovechkin has scored 403 of his 793 career goals away from home. Gretzky holds the overall goal record with 894 — 402 scored on the road. Anthony Mantha added a goal and an assist for the Capitals.
■ Bruins 3, Lightning 1: At Boston, Taylor Hall scored twice and the Bruins extended their Nhl-record streak of home victories to open a season to 13 games. Backup goalie Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves and Brad Marchand added an empty-netter for the Bruins, whose 3-2 overtime win over Carolina on Friday broke the record of 11 set by the 1963-64 Chicago Blackhawks and matched by the Florida Panthers last season.
■ Hurricanes 3, Penguins 2: At Pittsburgh, Brett Pesce scored at the end of a two-on-none 2:20 into overtime to lift Carolina. The Penguins forced the extra period on Jake Guentzel’s deflection with 58 seconds to go in regulation but the Hurricanes escaped with the extra point when a weird carom led to a breakaway that Pesce converted for his second goal of the season.
■ Flyers 3, Islanders 1: At Philadelphia, Kevin Hayes scored two goals, Carter Hart made 23 saves and the Flyers snapped a 10-game losing streak. Travis Sanheim also scored and Lukáš Sedlák added two assists for Philadelphia, which opened a five-game homestand by ending its third double-digit skid in less than 12 months.
■ Predators 2, Ducks 1: At Nashville, Tennessee, Roman Josi scored at 3:50 of overtime to lift the Predators. Juuse Saros made 34 saves and Colton Sissons also scored for the Predators, who have won two of their last three games. Matt Duchene had two assists.
■ Jets 5, Avalanche 0: At Winnipeg, Manitoba, Blake Wheeler had three goals and an assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves and the Jets routed reigning Stanley Cup champion Colorado. Mark Scheifele added a goal and two assists, and Josh Morrissey had a goal and an assist. Cole Perfetti contributed three assists for the Jets.
■ Flames 6, Panthers 2: At Calgary, Alberta, Dillon Dube scored short-handed and had two assists and the Flames spoiled Matthew Tkachuk’s return to Calgary. Tkachuk played for Calgary for his first six NHL seasons and was traded to Florida this summer.
■ Kraken 9, Kings 8: At Los Angeles, Andre Burakovsky had two goals, including the winner in overtime, and Seattle defeated Los Angeles in the highestscoring game this season. Burakovsky scored on the power play at 2:08 of the extra session to give Seattle the second six-game winning streak in franchise history. Matty Beniers and Jared Mccann each had two goals in the highest-scoring game of the Kraken’s two-year existence.