Justin Brazeau scored the go-ahead goal with 5:39 remaining in the third period, helping the host Pittsburgh Penguins spoil the debut of top overall draft pick Matthew Schaefer with a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday.
Evgeni Malkin collected three assists while Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell each had one goal and one assist for Pittsburgh, which won its second consecutive game to start the season.
Rookie Penguins defenseman Harrison Brunicke also tallied to become the first South African-born skater to score a goal in the NHL. Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry made 34 saves.
Schaefer, at 18 years and 34 days old, notched an assist on Jonathan Drouin’s first-period goal to become the youngest defenseman to collect a point in his NHL debut. Kyle Palmieri and Maxim Shabanov each scored a goal in the Islanders’ season opener. Ilya Sorokin stopped 24 shots in the loss.
Stars 5, Jets 4
Kyle Connor scored a hat trick the day after signing an eight-year, $96 million extension with Winnipeg, but the Jets fell to Dallas in both teams’ opening game.
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists for the Stars, and Jason Robertson and Nils Lundkvist each chipped in a goal and an assist. Tyler Seguin and Wyatt Johnston also tallied. Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger made 21 stops.
Morgan Barron also scored for Winnipeg, while Mark Scheifele had three assists. Dylan DeMelo added two helpers, and Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves for the Jets.
Bruins 4, Blackhawks 3 (OT)
Fraser Minten’s goal at 2:12 of overtime lifted Boston to a win over visiting Chicago.
Casey Mittelstadt, Tanner Jeannot and Elias Lindholm were the other scorers and Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves for the Bruins, who tied Toronto for the longest active streak in the NHL with 10 straight home-opening victories.
Connor Bedard and Andre Burakovsky led the Blackhawks with a goal and an assist apiece. Louis Crevier also scored, and Arvid Soderblom made 29 saves.
Wild 5, Blues 0
Ryan Hartman scored two goals and Minnesota pulled away for a win at St. Louis in the season opener for both teams.
Matt Boldy added a goal and two assists for the Wild. Marco Rossi finished with a goal and an assist, Joel Eriksson Ek scored a goal, and Kirill Kaprizov notched three assists.
Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped all 26 shots he faced. Blues goalie Jordan Binnington allowed five goals on 21 shots.
Rangers 4, Sabres 0
Igor Shesterkin made 37 saves and visiting New York pulled away late for a win over Buffalo.
J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who gave new coach Mike Sullivan his first win with the team after New York lost 3-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. Carson Soucy and Adam Fox also scored for the Rangers.
Alex Lyon made 29 saves for the Sabres, opening-night losers who enter the 2025-26 season looking to end a 14-season Stanley Cup playoff drought.
Panthers 2, Flyers 1
Brad Marchand scored the go-ahead goal with 17:41 left in the third period, leading Florida to a win over Philadelphia in Sunrise, Fla.
Anton Lundell also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for the Panthers, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov sustained an apparent arm injury in the second period and did not return.
Noah Cates scored for Philadelphia. Goalie Daniel Vladar played well in his Flyers debut, recording 32 saves.
Canadiens 5, Red Wings 1
Mike Matheson scored a goal and added an assist while Jakub Dobes logged 30 saves as visiting Montreal spoiled Detroit’s season opener.
Zack Bolduc, Oliver Kapanen, Alexandre Carrier and Juraj Slafkovsky each added a goal for the Canadiens, who quickly recovered from a 5-2 season-opening loss to the Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher supplied two assists apiece.
Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings, who got a forgettable debut from John Gibson. The starting goaltender yielded five goals and stopped just eight shots before he was removed in the second period. Cam Talbot turned aside all four shots he faced the rest of the way.
Hurricanes 6, Devils 3
Seth Jarvis broke a tie late in the game with the first of his two goals and new teammate K’Andre Miller scored twice in his team debut as Carolina beat New Jersey in the season opener for both teams at Raleigh, N.C.
Taylor Hall supplied a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, while teammates Sebastian Aho and Shayne Gostisbehere had two assists apiece. Frederik Andersen made 19 saves.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist while Dougie Hamilton and Cody Glass each scored for the Devils. Luke Hughes provided two assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves.
Senators 5, Lightning 4
Shane Pinto’s second goal, a rebound, go-ahead score with 1:47 remaining, lifted Ottawa to a season-opening victory over host Tampa Bay.
Pinto, who also had an assist, scored the tiebreaking tally. Claude Giroux added an empty-net goal as the Senators rallied twice from two-goal deficits in the win. Artem Zub had a goal and two assists, Dylan Cozens scored and Brady Tkachuk added three helpers. Linus Ullmark stopped 21 shots for the visitors.
The Lightning’s Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, Nikita Kucherov scored twice and Oliver Bjorkstrand added one goal. Darren Raddysh, Victor Hedman and Jake Guentzel each had two assists.
Avalanche 2, Mammoth 1
Nathan MacKinnon scored a go-ahead goal early in the third period, Ross Colton also had a goal, and Colorado beat Utah in its home opener at Denver.
Scott Wedgewood turned away 32 shots for the Avalanche, who improved to 2-0-0 on the season.
Dylan Guenther scored and Karel Vejmelka made 25 saves for the Mammoth in their season opener.
Predators 2, Blue Jackets 1
Juuse Saros stopped 37 shots and Ryan O’Reilly scored a power-play goal in the third period to lift host Nashville to a victory over Columbus in the season opener for both teams.
While Brady Martin became just the second 18-year-old to play for the Predators, it was the thirty-somethings who got Nashville its first two points of the season. Besides O’Reilly, 34, the Predators also got a goal from Michael Bunting, 30. Erik Haula, 34; Filip Forsberg, 31; and Roman Josi, 35; tallied assists.
Dimitri Voronkov scored for the Blue Jackets, who got 29 saves from Jet Greaves.
Golden Knights 4, Sharks 3 (OT)
Reilly Smith scored at 1:24 of overtime as Vegas rallied for a victory at San Jose, spoiling the Sharks’ season opener.
Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist for Vegas, which improved to 15-0-3 all-time in regular-season games played at San Jose. Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden also scored, Mark Stone logged two assists and Akira Schmid made 20 saves for the Golden Knights, who improved to 28-2-5 all-time against the Sharks.
Philipp Kurashev, Jeff Skinner and Alexander Wennberg scored goals and Shakir Mukhamadullin had two assists for San Jose.
Kraken 3, Ducks 1
Joey Daccord made 35 saves as Seattle won an opener — either season or home — for the first time in its five years of existence, defeating visiting Anaheim.
Vince Dunn, Mason Marchment and Jared McCann scored for the Kraken, who won their first game under new coach Lane Lambert.
Anaheim’s Bennett Sennecke, the third overall pick in the 2024 draft, tallied in his NHL debut. Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal stopped 28 of 31 shots.
Canucks 5, Flames 1
Thatcher Demko saved 17 of the 18 shots he faced and Filip Chytil scored twice as Vancouver beat visiting Calgary to win its season opener.
Kiefer Sherwood, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks. Evander Kane recorded an assist in his Vancouver debut.
Morgan Frost scored for the Flames, who won their opener on Wednesday. Dustin Wolf made 21 saves while starting for the second night in a row.
–Field Level Media
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