New Jersey @ Boston 4-3 - Andy Greene scored the second of two power-play goals separated by 24 seconds with 44.1 seconds left in the third period and the Devils doubled their season's win total and earned their first road win of the season, 4-3, at TD Garden after trailing by two goals twice. The Devils trailed 3-1 before they scored in the last minute of the second period, and were down one with less than two minutes to go. Boston's attempt to protect the one-goal lead it carried into the third period was severely challenged with 3:15 to play in regulation, when Torey Krug was called for a high sticking double-minor after a battle with Steve Bernier. Then with 1:49 remaining, Patrice Bergeron's clearing attempt left the rink for a penalty for delay of game and sent New Jersey on a 5-on-3. The Devils waited until there was about 90 seconds remaining on the clock before they pulled Martin Brodeur (25 saves) to create a 6-on-3 advantage. At 18:52, Marek Zidlicky ripped a slap shot past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (28 saves) high to the glove side to time the game. With Bergeron out of the box, the Devils opted to reinsert Brodeur and go for the win 5-on-4. Jaromir Jagr found Damien Brunner for an open shot from the right side of the slot. Rask made the initial save and then Greene then scored his game-winner at 19:16 from the left circle. The Bruins scored the first goal of the night nine seconds into a power play. Krug took a wrist shot from the right point through Lucic screen before it got past Brodeur at 7:52 for a 1-0 Bruins lead. Jarome Iginla, who finished the night with three points, doubled the Bruins' lead with a little help from Brunner. After he won a battle at the New Jersey blue line and won the race to the puck, Iginla took a tough-angle shot from the right wall. The shot hit off Brunner and went past Brodeur for a 2-0 lead at 9:19. The Devils then burned their timeout to stop the momentum. New Jersey reversed the flow momentarily during a power play, when Adam Henrique scored on a rebound of an Eric Gelinas shot at 11:24. With that power-play goal, the Devils ran their streak of games with at least one goal on the power play to five. Milan Lucic, however, made sure the Bruins took a two-goal lead to the dressing room. When Krejci hit him in stride at the New Jersey blue line, Lucic used the room in front of him to get to the circle and then rip a shot past Brodeur for a 3-1 lead with 56 seconds remaining before the first intermission. Just when it looked like neither team would score in the second period, the Devils' hot power play struck. This time, Brunner found the rebound of a Bernier shot in the left circle and beat Rask with a backhander to the short side at 19:32 to cut the lead to 3-2.
San Jose @ Montreal 2-0 - It was the case again Saturday when Antti Niemi needed 22 saves to earn his second shutout in three starts and Logan Couture scored twice to lead the Sharks to a 2-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. A big reason why the Canadiens (6-5-0) weren't able to muster many shots on Niemi is that they barely had the puck all night. Montreal was called for 12 icings, compared to five for San Jose, and spent entire shifts chasing the Sharks in their own end. A byproduct of San Jose's consistent ability to control the puck and play in the opposing team's end is that the Sharks draw a ton of penalties, and they don't take many themselves. Twice in the second period the Canadiens looked to be building some momentum before they were forced into taking penalties that killed it and swung it back to San Jose. The Sharks were coming off a 2-1 loss at the Boston Bruins on Thursday, when David Krejci scored the game-winning goal with 0.8 seconds to play in regulation. It was San Jose's first regulation loss of the season after going 8-0-1 over the opening nine games, and it came in a game where they outshot the Bruins on the road by a 39-17 count. Price was solid for the Canadiens once again, improving his save percentage this season to .937, and one of the two goals he allowed came on a funny bounce off the glass that sent the puck right to Couture in front for tap into an empty net to make it 2-0 at 4:09 of the third.
NY Rangers @ Detroit 3-2 OT - Derick Brassard's breakaway goal with 12.9 seconds left in overtime gave the Rangers a 3-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night in the finale of a nine-game season-opening road trip. It was New York's first victory at Joe Louis Arena since Jan. 30, 1999 and gave the Rangers a 3-6-0 record on marathon trip, one that was necessitated by the completion of the remodeling of Madison Square Garden. The Rangers play their home opener Monday against the Montreal Canadiens. New York dominated play for much of the night but appeared to be headed for a shootout before Benoit Pouliot dove and swatted the puck to Brassard as he streaked into the Detroit zone. Brassard raced down the slot and fired a shot past goaltender Jimmy Howard for the win. The Rangers, who were 0-5-1 in their past six visits to Detroit, trailed 2-1 after two periods but needed just 2:18 of the third to get even. Marc Staal stepped into a slap shot from the left point that Howard stopped but kicked back into the slot. Mats Zuccarello grabbed the rebound and fired it into the net before Howard could recover for his first goal of the season. The Rangers got the first good chance of a free-flowing first period when Chris Kreider found himself alone in front 5:10 into the game, only to have Howard deny his backhander with a right-pad save. New York killed off a pair of Detroit power plays before the Red Wings grabbed the lead at 17:12 on Miller's first goal of the season. Miller picked up an errant pass by Zuccarello in his own zone, raced up the left wing with both defensemen caught up ice and fired a perfect wrist shot from just inside the left faceoff dot, beating Talbot over the pad. The Rangers finally got a puck past Howard and tied the game at 17:20. With Kyle Quincey off for interference, Pouliot controlled the puck just to the right of Howard and was able to flip it into the net for his first of the season. But the tie didn't last long, as Detroit capitalized on a power play of its own to regain the lead with 11 seconds left in the period. Taylor Pyatt went off for holding at 18:32, and Daniel Alfredsson made New York pay when he drifted into some open space in the slot, took a pass from Pavel Datsyuk and one-timed a shot inside the far post for his second of the season.
Buffalo @ Tampa Bay 2-3 - Martin St. Louis, in his 15th NHL season, one-timed a cross-ice pass from Steven Stamkos to tie the score 2-2 with 5:51 remaining in regulation. Rookie forward Ondrej Palat, appearing in his 24th NHL game, scored the game-winner off a scramble 1:46 later as the Lightning overcame a 2-1 deficit. Buffalo grabbed the lead at 12:46 of the third period when Thomas Vanek finished off a 2-on-1 with Marcus Foligno. Zemgus Girgensons had the other assist as the Sabres caught Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas pinching in deep in their zone. Brian Flynn scored his second goal of the season into a wide-open net to tie the game at 1-1 at 12:58 of the second period. An errant clearing pass by Tampa Bay ended up on the stick of Ville Leino alone in the slot. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (20 saves) stopped Leino's shot, but the rebound bounced to Cody McCormick at the left of the crease. As Bishop dove to try to snag the puck, McCormick sent a cross-crease pass to Flynn at the right side of the net for an easy goal. The Sabres have been notoriously slow starters this season, and they allowed the first goal for the 12th time in 13 games. Miller stopped Valtteri Filppula's power-play shot, but Johnson put home the rebound at 12:48 for his third goal of the season. Buffalo did not get their first shot on Bishop until more than six minutes into the game. The Sabres best scoring chance came midway through the period when Steve Ott had a breakaway but couldn't beat Bishop.
Philadelphia @ NY Islanders 5-2 - Vincent Lecavalier gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead via the power play 4:30 into the game. AfterAndrew MacDonald was whistled for hooking, former Islanders captain Mark Streit sent a pass from the left point towards the right circle for Lecavalier, who one-timed a shot that went off Travis Hamonic's stick and past Kevin Poulin, who made his first start in 15 days. It was Lecavalier's second goal of the season. Voracek doubled Philadelphia's lead one minute later with his first goal of the season. With the teams back at even strength, he cruised through the Islanders' zone, made a move around defenseman Matt Carkner and fired a wrist shot past Poulin to make it 2-0. It marked the second time this season the Flyers have had a two-goal lead. Okposo cut the deficit in half at 10:16. Not long after Michael Grabner's slap shot from the left circle was denied, Thomas Hickey made a nice backhand pass from along the wall to Okposo in the slot, and the latter fired a slap shot through traffic and past Mason to make it 2-1. Lecavalier scored his second goal of the game with 1:47 remaining in the first. Michael Raffl took a long feed from Streit and skated into the zone before sending a nice backhand feed to Lecavalier, who had his initial shot stopped by Poulin before stuffing the rebound over the goal line. Philadelphia took a two-goal lead into an intermission for the first time this season. Nielsen continued his torrid start with a shorthanded goal 10:30 into the second period. With Grabner serving a slashing penalty, Nielsen took a pass from Peter Regin and backhanded a shot past Mason to make it 3-2. It was Nielsen's team-leading seventh goal and 15th point of the season. He has a goal in four straight games. The Flyers received a scare with 5:43 left in the second period, when Zac Rinaldo took Braydon Coburn's shot from the point in the helmet. Rinaldo got up quickly and headed straight for the dressing room. He returned with a shield for the start of the third period. Philadelphia restored their two-goal lead on Lecavalier's third goal of the night at 8:53. With the teams at even strength, Lecavalier stripped Hickey of the puck at the Flyers' blue line to start a rush the other way. Giroux sent a pass from the left circle towards the slot, where Lecavalier swatted the puck past Poulin to make it 4-2. Read sealed it for Philadelphia with an empty-net goal at 18:28 of the third. It was his second goal of the season.
St Louis @ Nashville 6-1 - The Blues got contributions from a number of players even after losing forwards Chris Stewart and Magnus Paajarvi to upper-body injuries in the game. Oshie, Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo each had a goal and an assist, Vladimir Tarasenko and Jay Bouwmeester each had two assists and Derek Roy scored for the Blues, who erased the bad memory of a 3-2 overtime loss against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday. The Predators (6-5-1) lost for only the second time in regulation in their past eight games. Nick Spaling scored a shorthanded goal and Carter Hutton stopped 21 shots before being pulled in the third period in favor of Magnus Hellberg, who made his NHL debut. Steen's goal surpassed his total of eight he scored in 40 games a season ago seven seconds into the Blues' first power play of the night. Steen, who has five goals in four games and has scored in eight of the Blues' nine games, snapped a wrister from the left circle past Hutton, who was screened by Stewart, 5:27 into the opening period. Oshie gave the Blues a 2-0 lead 7:34 into the second period when he redirected Pietrangelo's point shot from the high slot past Hutton with David Backes parked in front of the Predators' goalie. Vladimir Sobotka's nifty pass to Schwartz off a 2-on-1 gave the Blues a 3-0 lead when Schwartz one-timed a shot from the right circle at 11:36 of the second period on the Blues' third shot of the period. The Blues lost Paajarvi after the first period after he took a hit, played a couple shifts but was done for the night, and Stewart, who got shoved into the corner boards by Patric Hornqvist midway through the second period, was lost for the third period after he also returned for a few shifts despite Hitchcock saying he probably shouldn't have allowed Stewart to return to the game. Both will be re-evaluated, but it’s possible the team will be making some call-ups from their American Hockey League affiliate in Chicago. With the Blues on a power play to begin the third period, a bouncing puck eluded Sobotka at the right point, and Spaling pounced with a breakaway. He beat Halak high stick side just 52 seconds into the period to make it a 3-1 game. The goal ended a shutout streak in this building for the Blues at 132:59. But that all was for naught as Steen got his second of the game from an improbable spot when he was able to take in a puck behind the Nashville goal and bank it in off Hutton's back at 4:07. Steen's 10 goals came on 26 shots this season. Roy took a Tarasenko feed and raced in on a 2-on-1 and fired a high wrister that chased Hutton from the game at 7:48. Pietrangelo's first of the season came via the power play. His blast beat Hellberg with Steen setting a screen in front at 12:58.
Washington @ Calgary 2-5 - Despite losing two of its three leading scorers in Lee Stempniak and Mark Giordano to lower-body injuries on the road, Calgary wasted little time getting offensive in the first period and chasing starter Braden Holtby for the second time this season. After a minute-long shift spent in the Washington zone, Russell sent a snap shot through a crowd in front of Holtby, beating him over the glove 1:04 into the game. Calgary continued to pour on the pressure. Sven Baertschi split John Erskine and Steve Oleksy on a partial break, testing Holtby again and drawing a penalty. Holtby was again challenged, robbing David Jones with his glove on the ensuing power play. On his next shift, Baertschi again crossed into the Capitals zone and, after temporarily losing the puck, found Sean Monahan in the slot. Monahan's shot hit Hudler in front, and the Flames' leading scorer tucked the puck around Holtby at 7:24 to extend Calgary's lead to 2-0. The Capitals got one back at 12:02 after Mikhail Grabovski found Chimera behind the defense. Chimera deked to the backhand and lifted the puck over Ramo to cut the margin to 2-1. But the Flames responded 48 seconds later when Cammalleri deflected a Dennis Wideman point shot behind Holtby, chasing the goaltender after 12:50 and three goals on 14 shots in favor of Michal Neuvirth. Washington managed to trim the deficit to one in the second period. After Flames forward TJ Galiardi failed to clear the puck past Mike Green at the point, the Capitals defenseman fed partner Nate Schmidt, whose initial shot was stopped by Ramo. But Volpatti slid the rebound into the net at 7:45 to make it a one-goal game. First, he stacked the pads on Troy Brouwer four minutes into the period after the puck ricocheted off the Washington forward. Four minutes later, Ramo stopped the deflection of a point shot by defenseman Karl Alzner. Baertschi spotted the rebound and cleared it out of the crease before Washington could capitalize. Cammalleri gave the Flames some insurance at 10:17 with his second of the night. He was on the goal line and threw the puck on net; it squeaked through Neuvirth's pads to make it 4-2. Glencross closed the scoring at 14:28 when he took a feed from Matt Stajan in the high slot and blew the puck by Neuvirth for his first goal in seven games.
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