San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Panthers’ win streak ends at 8
Charlie Coyle had the only score in the shootout and the Bruins beat Florida 3-2 on Saturday in Boston, ending the Panthers’ season-opening winning streak at eight games.
The Panthers fell two wins short of the NHL record for consecutive victories to start a season, set by Toronto in 1993-94 and matched by Buffalo in 2006-07.
It was Florida’s second game since coach Joel Quenneville resigned amid a sex scandal when he was with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.
Quenneville, the second-winningest coach in NHL history, resigned Thursday after being among those implicated for not responding swiftly to allegations by former Chicago player Kyle Beach of being sexually assaulted by then-Blackhawks assistant Brad Aldrich during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Andrew Brunette, an assistant under Quenneville, is the interim coach.
“We played hard,” Brunette said. “Heck of an effort by the guys in a back-to-back game, in a tough place to play.”
Coyle also scored in regulation, and Linus Ullmark stopped 33 shots, and three tries in the shootout. Coyle cut around goalie Spencer Knight before tucking in a shot in the shootout.
“It’s hard to talk about it,” Coyle said of his winner. “Sometimes you have something planned and sometimes you don’t. I’m just glad it went in.”
Aleksander Barkov pushed Florida in front with a power-play goal 7:49 into the third period, but Charlie McAvoy slipped a wrist shot in from the bottom of the right circle for a powerplay score, tying it with 6:25 left in regulation.
Devils 4, Penguins 2: Jesper Bratt scored on a third-period penalty shot to spoil Sidney Crosby’s season debut and help New Jersey win at Pittsburgh.
Crosby pulled down Bratt in the slot with three minutes left, leading to the deciding penalty shot. Bratt skated to the right and beat goalie Tristan Jarry with a backhander. Crosby sat out the Penguins’ first seven games after undergoing wrist surgery Sept. 8.
Andreas Johnsson scored twice for New Jersey, including an empty-net goal with 1:43 left. Jimmy Vesey had a shorthanded goal.
Blues 1, Blackhawks 0: Torey Krug scored and Jordan Binnington made 25 saves as host St. Louis kept Chicago winless. The Blackhawks dropped to 0-7-2 to set a franchise record for the worst start to a season. Chicago was winless through eight games in 1953-54, when it was 0-7-1, and 1999-00, starting 0-4-4.
The Blues rebounded after their first loss of the season Thursday.
Avalanche 4, Wild 1: In Denver, Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and two assists and set up Colorado’s go-ahead goal by defenseman Erik Johnson. Nazem Kadri also scored and Nathan MacKinnon had a pair of assists. Darcy Kuemper finished with 29 saves.
Oilers 2, Canucks 1:
Warren Foegele and Leon Draisatl scored powerplay goals for visiting Edmonton.
Kings 5, Canadiens 2:
Alex Iafallo had two goals and an assist, and host Los Angeles ended a six-game losing streak, winning for the first time since its season opener.
Predators 3, Islanders 2: Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi scored in the shootout, Tanner Jeannot scored twice and Juuse Saros made 34 saves in regulation and overtime for host Nashville, winners of three straight.
Flames 4, Flyers 0: Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk each had a power-play goal for host Calgary, and Mikael Backlund and Johnny Gaudreau each scored in the closing minutes.
Maple Leafs 5, Red Wings 4: John Tavares had a goal and two assists and Petr Mrazek made 26 saves for his first victory with host Toronto.