Sabres beat Penguins 3-1 in opener for both teams
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Conor Sheary scored twice against his old team and Carter Hutton stopped 26 shots in the Buffalo Sabres’ 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night in the opener for both teams.
Rasmus Dahlin also scored to help Buffalo give Ralph Krueger a victory in his Sabres coaching debut. Buffalo beat Pittsburgh in regulation for the first time since April 23, 2013.
Krueger last coached in the NHL in 2012-13 when the Edmonton Oilers had 19 wins during a shortened 48-game regular season. Buffalo went 33-39-10 under Phil Housley last season.
Sheary, who won two Stanley Cups with the Penguins, has four goals and six points in four games against his former team. He scored two goals twice last season, including a March 1 home game against Pittsburgh.
Evgeni Malkin scored on the power play for Pittsburgh. Matt Murray made 38 saves.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) _ Reigning NHL MVP Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist, Kevin Shattenkirk and Pat Maroon scored in their Tampa Bay debuts, and the Lightning opened the season with a victory over Florida.
Ondrej Palat snapped a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal midway through the third period. Maroon, who helped St. Louis win its first Stanley Cup last season, made it 4-2 before Erik Cernak added an empty-netter.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots to help Tampa Bay extend its winning streak in season openers to an NHL-best six. Mike Hoffman and Vincent Trocheck scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves in his debut for the Panthers.
HURRICANES 4, CANADIENS 3, SO
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ Dougie Hamilton scored in the shootout, Petr Mrazek stopped three shots in the tiebreaker and Carolina beat Montreal in the teams’ opener.
Erik Haula, making his debut with the Hurricanes, tied it at 3 with 13:05 left. Martin Necas also scored with the man advantage for a Carolina team that struggled in those situations during the postseason.
Lucas Wallmark also scored, Hamilton had two assists and Mrazek made 33 saves for the Hurricanes.
Jordan Weal, Tomas Tatar and Jesperi Kotkaniemi each scored for Montreal during a three-goal second period that erased an early 2-0 deficit, with the goals by Tatar and Kotkaniemi coming 1:04 apart. Carey Price stopped 40 shots.
NEW YORK (AP) _ Brett Howden broke a tie with 4:09 remaining and New York beat Winnipeg in a wild season opener.
Mika Zibanejad had a goal and three assists, Jacob Trouba added a goal and two assists, and Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist for New York. Marc Staal also scored, and Henrik Lundqvist _ making his 14th consecutive opening-day start _ stopped 43 shots.
The Jets went on their fifth power play with 1:37 left, and were skating with a 6-on-4 advantage when Brendan Smith scored into the empty net with 17 seconds remaining.
Blake Wheeler had two goals, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor also scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves.
