Gameday 8 (Sat, 26, Jan) - Results

Colorado v San Jose 0-4 - Patrick Marleau made NHL history, and the San Jose Sharks made quick work of the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon at HP Pavilion. Marleau scored two goals for the fourth straight game, leading the undefeated Sharks to a 4-0 victory. Marleau became just the second player in NHL history to open a season with four straight multi-goal games. He joined Cy Denneny of the 1917-18 Ottawa Senators in that elite club. Marleau scored both his goals on power plays in the first period. In the second, Sharks captain Joe Thornton added a power-play goal and rookie Matt Irwin scored the first goal of his NHL career. Goaltender Thomas Greiss, making his first start of the season in place of Antti Niemi, stopped 24 shots, earning his first career shutout in his 39th NHL game. He improved to 3-0-0 lifetime against Colorado. The Avalanche (2-2-0) lost their ninth straight regular-season game at HP Pavilion, where they haven't won since Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals in 2010. Colorado's last regular-season victory in San Jose was on Feb. 6, 2008. The Sharks didn't log their first shot until 12:17 of the first period, but Marleau scored twice before the first intermission, giving them a 2-0 lead. Both of Marleau's goals came after Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart delivered a huge hit on Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. As Landeskog left the ice, Avalanche defenseman Ryan O'Byrne confronted Stuart, igniting a long, nasty fight. O'Byrne, the instigator, earned 19 penalty minutes, including a 10-minute misconduct. Landeskog, who appeared to take a shoulder to the head, limped toward the dressing room and missed the rest of the first period before returning for the second. Stuart wasn't penalized for the hit, and he said he doesn't expect to receive any supplemental discipline from the League. Stuart's hit seemed to jump-start the Sharks. Marleau gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 16:09 of the first, sending a rebound past Semyon Varlamov from close range. Joe Pavelski and Dan Boyle earned the assists. He struck again just 78 seconds later; this time he took a cross-ice pass just right of the crease from Thornton and put the puck into a wide-open net for a 2-0 lead. The Sharks made it 3-0 just 2:32 into the second period with another power-play goal, this one by Thornton. After Marleau nearly redirected a shot past Varlamov, Ryane Clowe got his stick on the puck before Thornton knocked it home from just to the right of the crease. Irwin put the Sharks ahead 4-0 at 17:05, taking a pass from Martin Havlat and ripping a slap shot from above the left circle past Varlamov. Varlamov, who was coming off a 4-0 shutout of Columbus on Thursday, was replaced by Jean-Sebastien Giguere after the second period. Greiss didn't face many shots, but he was solid early in the game, before the Sharks' offense came alive. Entering the game, the Sharks' power play ranked No. 3 in the NHL at 38.9 percent with seven goals in 18 attempts. Colorado's penalty kill ranked fourth in the league at 89.5 percent. The Avalanche had killed 17 of 19 penalties before facing the Sharks, who went 3-for-6 on the power play. The Sharks went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, both of those coming early in the first period while the game was scoreless. Forward Scott Gomez made his Sharks debut just three days after signing a one-year, $700,000 contract with San Jose as an unrestricted free agent. Gomez, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the New Jersey Devils, became a free agent last week when the League altered its rules, allowing the Montreal Canadiens to buy out the final two years of his seven-year contract. Gomez centered the fourth line between Andrew Desjardins and Adam Burish. He also saw some time with the second power-play unit.

Toronto v NY Rangers 2-5 - The New York Rangers returned to their locker room after one period against the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night down two goals. They were teetering on the precipice of a 1-4-0 start to the season, their worst since starting 0-4-1 in 1998-99. Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Henrik Lundqvist allowed two goals on three shots, while Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer was flawless during a 14-save first period. The two huge gaffes that led to the goals in an otherwise dominant period could've left the Rangers frustrated. Instead, the Rangers were rewarded for never wavering. Marian Gaborik, Marc Staal and Brian Boyle combined for four goals in the third period as the Rangers squeezed the life out of a weary-looking Maple Leafs team over the final 40 minutes in a 5-2 victory at Madison Square Garden. Rangers coach John Tortorella didn't peal the paint off the walls with a fiery speech during the first intermission. Instead, the Rangers stuck with the game plan and eventually overwhelmed the Maple Leafs with both teams playing their third games in four nights. After looking sluggish in a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night, Tortorella gave his team a full day of rest Friday. It paid off Saturday, the Maple Leafs found themselves chasing the puck all night, a problem that seemed to grow exponentially as the game continued. A point of pride for the Rangers last season was their physical fitness level, a direct result of Tortorella's grueling training camp. It helped result in a record of 10-2-2 in the second half of back-to-back games last season, but without that full training camp this year, the energy appeared to be lacking in Philadelphia on Thursday. Last season, the Rangers also excelled when playing their third game in four nights, going 11-3-0 in back end of those contests. Though they aren't quite at last season's levels in terms of conditioning, Boyle said they are where they need to be mentally for this compacted season. A Rangers breakdown led to Mikhail Grabovski's goal at 6:25 of the first period. It started with a turnover along the boards by defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who played it right to Maple Leafs forward Nikolai Kulemin. A quick pass was made to a cutting John-Michael Liles that drew both McDonagh and defense partner Dan Girardi. Liles slid the puck to a wide-open Grabovski, who calmly backhanded the shot past a helpless to Lundqvist to make it 1-0. With 2:45 remaining in the period, James van Riemsdyk scored on the Maple Leafs' third shot of the period, which was off a rebound of the second shot from Liles. The power-play goal was the result of a too many men on the ice penalty. It still took a while for that confidence to translate into victory. Brad Richards tapped home a rebound to pull the Rangers to within 2-1 at 5:43 of the second period, but that was all Reimer would allow through 40 minutes. He made 24 of 25 saves through two periods. Marc Staal ripped a one-timer past Reimer at 7:36 of the third period to tie the game. Marian Gaborik redirected a Staal blast past Reimer to put the Rangers ahead for good a little more than five minutes later. Boyle added some insurance with a deflection goal with 2:52 remaining, and Gaborik put his fifth of the season into an empty net with 1:15 left. The Rangers' top line of Gaborik, Richards and Rick Nash combined for eight points (Gaborik had four) and was on the ice for four of the team's five goals. After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the Rangers entered this season with designs on taking the next step. Sitting at 2-3-0, they know there is more work to be done.

Chicago v Columbus 3-2 - Five games into the new season, the Chicago Blackhawks are still perfect. Bryan Bickell's goal midway through the second period broke a tie, and Jonathan Toews scored what proved to be the game-winner as the Blackhawks held off the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 Saturday, spoiling the night for a full house at Nationwide Arena. The Blackhawks matched the record for the best start in franchise history; the 1971-72 team also won its first five games. Chicago has scored 20 goals in the five wins. This wasn't the Blackhawks' best performance, but it was enough to beat the struggling Blue Jackets, who fell to 1-3-1 and haven't won since defeating the Nashville Predators 3-2 in a shootout on opening night. Goaltender Corey Crawford played another solid game, making 24 saves and holding off a late surge by Columbus. Spurred by the crowd of 18,381, the Blue Jackets came out strong and grabbed a 1-0 lead at 7:35 of the opening period when Mark Letestu shoveled home a loose puck after a scramble in front of Crawford. The Blue Jackets dominated the first 15 minutes, but they couldn't get another puck past Crawford and the Blackhawks tied it at 17:54 on a goal by Dave Bolland, who had a wide-open net to shoot at after goaltender Steve Mason stopped Patrick Kane's breakaway. Bickell put the Blackhawks ahead to stay at 8:50 of the second period by deflecting Niklas Hjalmarsson's blast from the right point past Mason. Toews gave Chicago a two-goal lead at 6:35, with Kane earning his second assist. The Blue Jackets thought they had scored in the second period , but a goal by Derick Brassard was waved off when the officials ruled Nick Foligno interfered with Crawford. That decision caused the sellout crowd to boo throughout the game. Artem Anisimov backhanded Brandon Dubinsky's wraparound past Crawford with 2:19 remaining in regulation, but the Blue Jackets couldn't get the equalizer. Kane, whose scoring totals have dropped in each of the past two seasons, leads the Blackhawks with two goals and nine points. He has more than one point in four of the five games.

Philadelphia v Florida 7-1 - The Philadelphia Flyers offense broke out Saturday night, in a big way. Matt Read had his first NHL hat trick, Tye McGinn scored his first NHL goal and the Flyers routed the Florida Panthers 7-1 at the BB&T Center for their second consecutive victory after three losses to open the season. The Flyers came in having scored only five goals in their first four games. While scoring his first three goals of the season, Read continued to justify Laviolette's decision to put him on the top line with Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmons following the injury to wing Scott Hartnell. It was a memorable night all around for the Flyers, who saw veteran forward Danny Briere make his season debut and McGinn score his first NHL goal. Briere, who sustained a broken wrist while playing in Germany during the lockout, got 14:01 of ice time and initially was credited with an assist on the Flyers' first goal before a scoring change took it away. For McGinn, his first NHL goal came in his third game after he began the season in the American Hockey League. He also made a Flyers decision look good, as they decided to keep McGinn in the NHL and instead send down Eric Wellwood to the AHL to make room on the roster for Briere. Luke Schenn and Ruslan Fedotenko each had a goal and an assist, and Simmonds also had a goal. Giroux and Braydon Coburn each had two assists. Ilya Bryzgalov, making his fifth consecutive start, made 30 saves and had an assist on Read's first goal. It was the eighth assist of his career. Peter Mueller scored the lone goal for the Panthers, who have lost their last four in regulation after beating the Carolina Hurricanes in their season opener last Saturday night. The Panthers never lost more than three consecutive games in regulation in 2011-12 when they won their first-ever division title. Florida has been outscored 18-3 since its 5-1 victory against the Hurricanes. Their next game is Tuesday at Tampa Bay, where the Flyers play on Sunday. Jose Theodore started in net for the Panthers, but was pulled for Scott Clemmensen to start the second period after allowing three goals on nine shots. Forward Quinton Howden, one of Florida's three first-round picks in the 2010 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut. He became the fourth Panther to appear in his first NHL game this season, following Jonathan Huberdeau, Michael Caruso and Drew Shore. Florida again was without several injured regulars , Stephen Weiss, Kris Versteeg, Marcel Goc, Sean Bergenheim and Erik Gudbranson. The Flyers, meanwhile, were without both Hartnell and defenseman Andrej Meszaros. After Simmonds opened the scoring at 3:10 with a 5-on-3 goal, Read scored his first goal of the season at 6:12 when he rushed up the left wing. After making a move toward the middle of the ice, he beat Theodore with a wrist shot to the glove side. Read got his second at 18:34 of the second period by swatting home a bouncing puck after Coburn backhanded a pass from the right side of the net. The shot went through Clemmensen's legs. Read completed the hat trick with a power-play goal 54 seconds into the third period when he one-timed Brayden Schenn's pass in the high slot. McGinn closed out the first-period scoring at 18:51 when he skated in front of the net and redirected Coburn's feed from the boards. McGinn was playing in his third NHL game after beginning the season in the American Hockey League. The teams combined for three goals in the last 1:26 of the second period, all coming during a 4-on-4 after Philadelphia's Kurtis Foster went to the box for interference and the Panthers' Scottie Upshall was called for closing his hand on the puck. Mueller ended Bryzgalov's shutout bid 36 seconds after Read's second goal when he scored on a breakaway. After taking a pass from Ed Jovanovski from the front of the Panthers' net to the Flyers' blue line, Mueller beat Bryzgalov with a shot to the blocker side.

St Louis v Dallas 4-3 - It wasn't the kind of 60-minute effort St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock wants from his players on an every-night basis. But he and the Blues will gladly take their two points and go home. David Perron scored twice in a three-goal second period as the Blues survived a slow start and held on at the end to beat the injury-plagued Dallas Stars 4-3 before 17,131 at American Airlines Center on Saturday night. The Stars made the Blues work right to the end despite missing injured first-line forwards Jaromir Jagr (back) and Derek Roy (groin). Dallas is also missing perhaps its best forward, Jamie Benn, who didn't sign until late in the week and wasn't dressed. The Blues struck first when recently signed defenseman Wade Redden blistered a slapper from the blue line past rookie goaltender Cristopher Nilstorp at 5:31 of the opening period. Nilstorp was screened and never saw the shot from Redden, who found the back of the net for the first time since March 2010, when he was with the New York Rangers. Nilstorp stopped 25 of 29 shots in his second NHL start before leaving with a groin injury in the third and fell to 0-2-0. Jaroslav Halak stopped 20 of 23 shots he faced and improved to 3-0-0 on the season. Kari Lehtonen stopped all three shots he faced in relief of Nilstorp. Even though Lehtonen didn't start the game due to what Gulutzan called a tweak after morning skate, the Dallas coach had little reservation about putting his starter in for a rare relief stint. Dallas tied the game 26 seconds after Redden's tally on a goal by Tomas Vincour. Eric Nystrom dug the puck out from behind the Blues net and flipped a pass to Vernon Fiddler. He quickly spotted Vincour, who was making his season debut for the Stars, inside the right circle. Halak stopped Vincour's initial shot, but Vincour put home his own rebound to get Dallas even. Vincour had 10 points in 47 games for the Stars last season, but started the year with Texas of the American Hockey League before being recalled last Thursday. He had 19 points in 39 games in the AHL prior to being recalled. Halak stopped Michael Ryder's wrister during a power play, but Ryder put the Stars ahead at 12:40 when he put a backhander past Halak. Alex Goligoski's from the blue line struck Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who was standing in front of his own net, and came right to Ryder, who scored his 200th NHL goal. With two-thirds of his first line missing, Gulutzan moved Tom Wandell up to center his top group with rookie Reilly Smith filling in for Jagr on the left wing. Gulutzan also dropped captain Brenden Morrow from the third to the fourth line to create space for Vincour on the third line. Colton Sceviour, who was recalled from the AHL on Saturday morning, centered the fourth line alongside Ryan Garbutt and Morrow. Dallas led 2-1 after one period, but the Blues scored three straight goals in the second. Perron tied it with his first of the season at 10:51, beating Nilstorp with a wrister to his left skating after around three Dallas players. Chris Stewart tapped in a superb cross-ice feed from Patrik Berglund at 16:32 to put St. Louis ahead to stay. With time running out, rookie Vladimir Tarasenko intercepted a bad pass by Trevor Daley and fed Perron, who beat Nilstorp with 16 seconds left in the period for a 4-2 lead. Dallas got within 4-3 at 2:24 of the third, when Garbutt took a passout from Morrow and beat Halak with a wrist shot. Sceviour was credited with the secondary assist, the first point of his NHL career. Ray Whitney broke in alone after the Stars pulled Lehtonen for an extra attacker, but he rang the left post with 1:03 to play. The Stars kept pushing and had a 6-on-4 power play after Barret Jackman was penalized with 14 seconds to play, but couldn't get the puck past Halak. St. Louis will complete the back-to-back, their second of the season, on Sunday at Minnesota while Dallas begins a two-game road swing on Monday at Columbus, a game that should mark the season debut of Benn, who signed a five-year contract on Thursday. The Stars could also get Jagr and Roy back from injury during the trip.

Los Angeles v Phoenix 4-2 - Justin Williams knew the Los Angeles Kings were going to win eventually. He knew Anze Kopitar would start scoring goals eventually and he would find his way on the score sheet personally, eventually. But Williams admitted that if all three things didn't happen Saturday, when he assisted on one of two Kopitar goals and the defending champions won for the first time since hoisting the Stanley Cup seven months ago with a 4-2 win against the Phoenix Coyotes, the flight back to Los Angeles would feel a lot longer than an hour. Jeff Carter and Jake Muzzin also scored for the Kings, who had scored only four goals while going 0-2-1 in their first three games The top line of Kopitar, Williams and captain Dustin Brown had combined for exactly zero points and were a combined minus-7 in the losses, but they produced on Saturday and for the first time since beating the Devils in the Stanley Cup Final, they skated off a winner. Their foes from the Western Conference Finals a year ago can certainly relate. The Coyotes have lost four of their first five to start the season, allowing 20 goals thanks to a toxic combination of bad turnovers, poor zone coverage and subpar goaltending – first from Mike Smith and now Jason LaBarbera, who is 1-2 in three games subbing for the injured Smith. Mikkel Boedker and Shane Doan scored for the Coyotes and Phoenix had two other disputed goals washed out during the night. But after blowing leads in their previous three losses, the Coyotes never led Saturday as the Kings scored off wide-open shots and gaping rebounds. Jonathan Quick made 32 saves for the Kings, who still don't have a power-play goal, they're now 0-for-23, but didn't need one Saturday. LaBarbera had 27 saves for Phoenix, but he struggled with his puck tracking and rebound control. Each time, Los Angeles capitalized. Kopitar and the Kings got on the board 1:04, when he took a pass from Brown in the slot and beat LaBarbera up high. Just over a minute later, penalties to Muzzin and Colin Fraser gave the Coyotes two minute of 5-on-3 power play time and they cashed in. Oliver Ekman-Larsson drilled a shot off the post, but the rebound caromed right to Boedker, who popped in his first goal of the season at 3:47. But Kopitar and the Kings answered quickly. LaBarbera was caught tracking Williams left of the crease and Williams' centering pass found Kopitar all alone for his second of the night at 5:08. The Kings made it 3-1 midway through the period when LaBarbera stopped Simon Gagne's shot from the right wing, but left the rebound sitting in the slot for an unmarked Carter to bang home at 11:33. The two-goal lead was the Kings' first of the season. Phoenix appeared to cut that lead in half seconds later when David Moss tipped home a Michael Stone shot from the point, but Moss was called for interfering with Quick in the crease and the goal was disallowed. The Coyotes started the third period quickly when Doan hammered a Lauri Korpikoski feed past Quick just 22 seconds in and earned a power play less than a minute later. But the Kings survived the surge and put away the game at 8:35, when Muzzin's wrist shot from the left point eluded LaBarbera's glove. Phoenix had a second goal washed out with 39.6 seconds left when the whistle blew an instant before Radim Vrbata slid in a rebound sitting behind Quick in the Kings' crease into the net.

Edmonton v Calgary 3-4 - A visit from their biggest rival was just what the Calgary Flames needed to get their first win of the new season. Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester had a goal, an assist and was on ice for all four of his team's goals as the Flames continued their mastery of the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank Saddledome with a 4-3 victory on Saturday night. The Flames' first win in four games this season was also their 12th in the Oilers' last 13 visits to Calgary. Though the Oilers are 2-2-0 this season, they have yet to lead at any point in a game, covering a span of 248 minutes and one second. Edmonton's two wins have come in a shootout at Vancouver and in overtime against Los Angeles, and they had to come from behind in both games. The Flames wasted little time getting the jump on Krueger's Oilers in the latest renewal of the Battle of Alberta. After breaking through the slot, Michael Cammalleri took a weak backhander that didn't make it to Dubnyk. But with the puck loose in the crease, Mikael Backland was able to poke the rebound under the sprawled goaltender and into the net to make it 1-0 just 5:16 into the game. Bouwmeester made it 2-0 at 14:25, three seconds after a cross-checking penalty to Darcy Hordichuk expired, when his shot squeaked through the legs of Dubnyk and trickled over the goal line. The Oilers got one goal back just five seconds after Curtis Glencross was called for goaltender interference. Justin Schultz let go a wrister from the point that snuck through Miikka Kiprusoff with 40.6 seconds left in the period to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes. Calgary regained its two-goal lead 3:59 into the second period on a play set up by Jarome Iginla. Calgary's captain came in on an odd-man rush and fed a pass through the skates of teammate Alex Tanguay onto the stick of Glencross, who atoned for his earlier penalty by tapping the puck across the goal line for his third of the season. The Oilers got their second power-play goal of the night at 8:47 to make it a one-goal game again. With Mark Giordano in the box for tripping, Jordan Eberle danced through Calgary's Cory Sarich and Matt Stajan while cutting through the slot, then wired a wrister past Kiprusoff to make it 3-2. With an assist on the play, Shawn Horcoff tied Esa Tikkanen for eighth on the Oilers' all-time scoring list with 436 points. The Flames answered with a power-play goal of them own. Bouwmeester faked a pass, walked about a stretched-out Ladislav Smid and found Lee Stempniak parked on the doorstep for a tap-in at 14:57. Jiri Hudler, signed as a free agent last summer, earned the second assist for his first point as a member of the Flames. The Flames protected the lead by allowing just one shot through the first 13 minutes of the third period. Dubnyk kept the Oilers in the game in the 14th minute when rookie Roman Cervenka took a pass from Hudler in the slot only to see Dubnyk make the stop with his blocker. Less than a minute later, Dubnyk flashed his right pad to deny a streaking Glencross on a 2-on-1 break. Sam Gagner, who scored the overtime winner against Los Angeles, scored with 1.4 seconds left in the game, but the Oilers had no time to get the equalizer. The win marked the first for coach Bob Hartley, who joined the Flames organization in the offseason.

Nashville v Anaheim 2-3 - The original plan drawn up by Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau is to have Viktor Fasth play during back-to-back sequences. But Boudreau might have to re-think that after Fasth looked more than capable in his NHL debut. The Swede recorded 19 saves in regulation and overtime and stopped David Legwand to seal a 3-2 shootout win Saturday night against the Nashville Predators. Fasth also thwarted Mike Fisher in the shootout to defeat counterpart Pekka Rinne, who is still searching for his first win this season. Corey Perry wristed a shot glove side on Rinne in the second round as the Ducks won their first home game. It was a double whammy for Nashville, which lost Patric Hornqvist halfway through the third after his legs got tangled with Ryan Getzlaf in the corner. Nashville coach Barry Trotz said that Hornqvist is "out indefinitely, until he's examined" with a lower-body injury. Signed last May as Jonas Hiller's backup, Fasth is a rookie, but the Swedish Elite League Goaltender of the Year the past two seasons is 30 years old. He missed time in the fall with hip and groin injuries and received no benefit of preseason NHL games yet looked solid. Fasth made close stops on Hornqvist and Martin Erat during a second period penalty kill and held ground in an awful period by Anaheim, which recorded no shots on goal in its first three power plays. Because of the time missed with injury the Ducks sent Fasth to its American Hockey League affiliate to get playing time during training camp. Fasth said he was told days ago he would start. Daniel Winnik, moved up to the top line in the second period, forced a 2-2 tie at 11:12 on a backhand tap-in of Perry's pass, with Hal Gill seemingly attached to his hip. Winnik became the first player in Anaheim history to score five goals in the team's first four regular season games. Just more than a minute earlier, Legwand swiped a backhander past Fasth. That was the end of the scoring for Nashville, which couldn't convert a Getzlaf closing-the-hand-on-the-puck penalty late in regulation. The Predators have three shootout losses in five games. Rinne is 0-1-3. Trotz benched Craig Smith in the third period for simple ineffectiveness. Bobby Ryan finally ended Anaheim's scoreless streak at 99:27 with a second tip of Cam Fowler's shot from the left point with 32.4 seconds left in the second to give the Ducks' life going into the third. Teemu Selanne won a puck battle with Mike Fisher to poke it up to Fowler. The Ducks didn't do Fasth any favors by leaving him to defend a 2-on-1 fewer than two minutes into the game. Brandon Yip drove in and backhanded his own rebound home after he collected Fowler's errant pass to Bryan Allen at Nashville's blue line. The play started, ironically, on a lost faceoff by the dot ace Paul Gaustad, who returned to the Predators lineup after a three-game absence because of an upper-body injury.