Marchand scores game-winner as Panthers beat Flyers 2-1

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Brad Marchand broke a tie at 2:19 of the third period and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers beat Philadelphia 2-1 on Thursday night to spoil Rick Tocchet’s Flyers coaching debut.

Marchand fired a wrist shot from the left boards past goalie Dan Vladar and into the top right corner to help the Panthers win their second straight at home to open the season. Marchand missed a chance to pad the lead with 6 1/2 minutes left, sending a wrister over the crossbar on a breakaway.

Tocchet rejoined the Flyers during the offseason. The former Philadelphia player won Stanley Cups as an assistant in Pittsburgh and was a head coach in Tampa Bay, Arizona and, most recently, Vancouver.

Anton Lundell also scored for injury-depleted Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots. Florida captain Aleksander Barkov is expected to miss the entire regular season because of two torn knee ligaments, and Matthew Tkachuk is probably out until December at least while he recovers from a groin injury.

Noah Cates scored for Philadelphia. Vladar made 32 saves.

Lundell opened the scoring on a power play at 5:29 of the second period, beating Vladar with a wrist shot off a break. Cates tied it with 2:12 left in the period, chipping a loose puck over Bobrovsky.

CANADIENS 5, RED WINGS 1

DETROIT (AP) — Mike Matheson had a goal and an assist and Montreal spoiled Detroit’s season opener with a victory.

Zachary Bolduc, Oliver Kapanen, Alexandre Carrier and Juraj Slafkovsky also scored for the Canadiens, who bounced back from a 5-2, season-opening loss at Toronto on Wednesday night.

Patrick Gallagher and Nick Suzuki had two assists apiece, while Jakub Dobes made 30 saves.

Dylan Larkin scored on a first-period power play for the Red Wings.

Goaltender John Gibson, who was acquired from Anaheim in an offseason trade, had an inauspicious Detroit debut. He was pulled with 2:48 remaining in the second period after allowing Slafkovsky’s power-play goal off a rebound. Gibson made just eight saves on 13 shots before he was replaced by Cam Talbot.

Matheson scored with 6.7 seconds left in the first period to give the Canadiens a 3-1 lead. He lifted a shot from the left side that eluded Gibson’s catching glove.

The Canadiens took advantage of Red Wings defensive breakdowns to score their first two goals.

Bolduc, who also had a goal at Toronto, converted on a breakaway. Kapanen scored in front off a pass from Alex Newhook on a two-on-one break to give Montreal a 2-1 lead.

RANGERS 4, SABRES 0

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Igor Shesterkin stopped 37 shots and Alex Lafreniere’s first-period goal stood up as the winner in the New York Ranger’s victory over Buffalo in its season-opener.

Mike Sullivan earned his first win as Rangers coach, and the 480th of his career. Fired after 10 seasons in Pittsburgh last spring, the two-time Stanley Cup-winner took over in New York after Peter Laviolette was fired in April.

Newly named captain J.T. Miller and defensemen Carson Soucy and Adam Fox sealed the win by scoring a goal each over the final 5:14.

Shesterkin’s shutout was the 22nd of his career, and followed a 28-save outing, in which he allowed just one goal in a season-opening 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Buffalo’s Alex Lyon finished with 29 saves. The offseason free-agent addition got the start with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on IR due to a lower body injury.

PENGUINS 4, ISLANDERS 3

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Justin Brazeau beat Ilya Sorokin on a breakaway with 5:39 left to lift Pittsburgh past the New York Islanders.

Brazeau collected a lead pass from Evgeni Malkin, then deked his way by a sprawled Sorokin as the Penguins won for the second time in as many games under first-year coach Dan Muse.

Malkin finished with a goal and two assists while Sidney Crosby added a goal and an assist.

Crosby’s second-period tally from one knee at the top of the crease gave him 626 goals in his career, broke a tie with Hall of Famers Jarome Iginla and Joe Sakic, and moved Crosby into 16th-place by himself on the NHL’s career list.

Pittsburgh rookie Harrison Brunicke became the first South African to score in the NHL when he beat Sorokin between the legs in the second period. Tristan Jarry finished with 34 saves, including a couple of key stops in the frantic final seconds.

Jonathan Drouin, Kyle Palmieri, and rookie Max Shabanov scored for the Islanders. Sorokin stopped 24 shots.

Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the top overall pick in this year’s draft, picked up the first point of his career when the 18-year-old set up a knuckler from the slot by Drouin just past the midway point of the opening period.

SENATORS 5, LIGHTNING 4

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Shane Pinto scored his second goal of the night late in the third period to lift Ottawa to a win over Tampa Bay Lightning in the opener for both clubs.

Dylan Cozens and Artus Zub also scored for the Senators, and Claude Giroux added an empty-netter. Brady Tkachuk had three assists.

Linus Ullmark stopped 21 shots for Ottawa.

Brayden Point had a goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, which fell to 21-10-2 in season openers. Nikita Kucherov scored twice and Oliver Bjorkstrand had a power-play goal.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, who played only two periods in the preseason, finished with 29 saves.

Jake Sanderson intercepted a pass at center ice and transitioned up ice quickly to take the puck to the net, where Pinto punched in a loose puck with 1:47 left to put the Senators ahead for good at 4-3.

BRUINS 4, BLACKHAWKS 3, OT

BOSTON (AP) — Fraser Minten scored at 2:12 of overtime to give Boston a victory over Chicago in its home opener.

Minten converted on a 2-on-1 break for his first career overtime goal, giving the Bruins their second straight victory under new head coach Marco Sturm.

Casey Mittelstadt, Tanner Jeannot and Elias Lindholm scored in regulation for Boston, Backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo stopped 21.

Connor Bedard, Louis Crevier and Andre Burakovsky scored for Chicago, coming off an opening loss at Florida. Arvid Soderblom made 29 saves.

Playing for the second consecutive night, the Bruins weathered several rushes by the Blackhawks during the opening minutes before a good rush by Viktor Arvidsson coupled with Mittelstadt controlling the puck resulted in the game’s first goal.

The 20-year-old Bedard erased Boston’s lead with a slap shot inside the left circle. Chicago took its first lead just 2:22 into the second period when Crevier, a late addition to the lineup, scored on a shot from the top of the circle.

HURRICANES 6, DEVILS 3

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Seth Jarvis scored the go-ahead goal with a redirect with 2:43 left to help Carolina beat New Jersey in the opener for both teams.

Jarvis got position at the top of the crease as Sebastian Aho sent the puck in for the deflection, with Jarvis getting it past Jacob Markstrom. That allowed Carolina to finally take control after alternating goals with New Jersey.

Jarvis added a long-distance empty-netter with 54.1 seconds left off a turnover, while Eric Robinson added one more — this one past Markstrom after he returned to net — with 12.6 seconds left.

Defenseman K’Andre Miller scored twice in his debut with Carolina, which acquired him from the New York Rangers and signed him to a long-term deal. Taylor Hall also scored for Carolina.

Dougie Hamilton, Cody Glass and Jesper Bratt scored goals for the Devils, who answered scores from Carolina each time until Jarvis’ first score.

Frederik Andersen finished with 19 saves, while Markstrom had 27.

WILD 5, BLUES 0

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ryan Hartman scored twice, Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves for his 12th NHL shutout and Minnesota beat St. in the opener for both teams.

Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi also scored, and Kirill Kaprizov had three assists in his first game since signing an eight-year, $136 million contract. Gustavsson played days after agreeing to a five-year, $34 million contract extension.

Hartman and Boldy — who also had two assists — scored late in the first period. Hartman connected from the edge of the slot with 4:06 left and Boldy had a tip past Jordan Binnington with 2:30 to go.

Eriksson Ek scored on a power-play rebound with 7:33 left in the second period for his 300th career point. Hartman added his second goal with 2:24 left in the period, beating Binnington from close range.

Rossi scored off a rebound at 7:26 of the third.

PREDATORS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan O’Reilly scored a power-play goal early in the third period, and Nashville opened the season by beating the Blue Jackets and extending their home winning streak over Columbus to 10 games.

The Predators ′ streak on home ice against Columbus dates to March 30, 2019. They are 44-6-4 in Music City against the Blue Jackets. Overall, they have 71 wins over Columbus, which ranks second only to Nashville’s 72 wins against Chicago for the most by the franchise against any opponent.

Nashville also ensured a better start after last season’s five-game skid.

O’Reilly put the Predators ahead by flipping a backhander from the side of the net over Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves off assists from Filip Forsberg and captain Roman Josi.

Michael Bunting also scored for Nashville. Juuse Saros made 37 saves, including a flurry in the final minute with the Columbus net empty.

Dmitri Voronkov had the first goal of Columbus’ 25th NHL season, and Greaves made 29 saves.

STARS 5, JETS 4

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Mikko Rantanen scored the first goal and had two assists and Dallas won in coach Glen Gulutzan’s return, overcoming Kyle Connor’s hat trick to hold off Winnipeg in the opener for both teams.

Gulutzan took over for the fired Pete DeBoer during the offseason.

Jason Robertson had a goal and an assist for Dallas, which knocked the Jets out of the second round of the playoffs in six games last season. Nils Lundkvist, Tyler Seguin and Wyatt Johnston also scored, and Jake Oettinger made 21 saves.

Down 5-1 after Johnston’s goal early in the third, the Jets rallied on short-handed goals by Morgan Barron at 9:53 and Connor with 8:51 left and Connor’s third with 3:03 remaining.