Results - Sat, October 05, 2013

Detroit v Boston 1-4 - The Bruins scored twice on the power play Saturday night, both times with Zdeno Chara in front of the net, and defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 at TD Garden in the first regular-season game between the teams as Atlantic Division foes. The Bruins' new power-play alignment features Chara planting his 6-foot-9 frame in front of the opposing goal on one of the units. Chara scored one of the power-play goals against the Red Wings and helped Torey Krug score the other. The Bruins' power play ranked 26th in the League in 2013 and 15th the prior season. But the addition of Krug and Dougie Hamilton allowed coach Claude Julien to ask Chara if he would be willing to try to stake out some space in the slot. With Krug and center David Krejci manning the points, Chara has joined Milan Lucic and Jarome Iginla at the forward positions. Krug's slap shot from the high slot went through two screens, including one from Chara, before it eluded Howard at 9:11 of the first period. The goal was Krug's first in the regular season after he scored four in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Chara scored the Bruins' second power-play goal of the game at 12:17 of the third period. After a Bruins takeaway, Krug found a streaking Chara headed toward the net. Chara caught the puck and then roofed a backhand for a 4-1 lead. That goal and several other plays shows that Chara can do more than just screen the goaltender. He can also use his strength. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask finished with 25 saves. The Bruins killed off Detroit's two power plays and the Red Wings are now 0-for-8 with the man advantage through their first three games. Despite their fast start, the Bruins weren't able to shake the Red Wings until the second period. They maintained a 1-0 lead throughout much of the first while severely outshooting Detroit. The Red Wings went one stretch of 7:54 without a shot before Justin Abdelkader had an in-close chance that Rask deflected away with his pad. Detroit capitalized on some tough play in the neutral zone and a fortuitous oversight by the officials to pull even at 1-1 before the period ended. During a Bruins rush prior to the tying goal, the puck appeared (and replays proved) to leave the playing surface and hit a player on the Detroit bench. The whistle didn't blow and with 3:11 remaining before the first intermission, Zetterberg's shot from the left faceoff dot tied the game. Zetterberg got the puck off a long rebound off an Abdelkader shot. The Bruins wasted little time regaining the lead after the start of the second period. Brad Marchand kept the puck on a 2-on-2 and beat Howard with a wrist shot from just above the right dot to the far post 36 seconds into the period for a 2-1 lead. The Bruins had a scare at the 3:30 mark of the period, when Marchand went down in a heap after a collision with Abdelkader. Marchand skated off under his own power and returned to the game a few minutes later. Jordan Caron extended the Bruins' lead to 3-1 at 7:58 of the second period. After some strong work along the wall by the Bruins, Adam McQuaid sent the puck from the right point to the slot, where Reilly Smith set up Caron for a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle.

Ottawa v Toronto 4-5 SO - Mason Raymond made his home debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs a big one, scoring the winning goal in the shootout of a 5-4 victory against the Ottawa Senators. Raymond converted a spin-o-rama, a move he's used throughout his career and one the NHL considered banning. He defended his ability to use it to score. The first period saw the Maple Leafs and Senators trade goals to get the game off to a 2-2 start. Raymond scored a goal and had an assist on Nazem Kadri's first of the season. Ottawa countered with Turris scoring his first of the season and assisting Cory Conacher on his first. Raymond and Turris finished the game with three points each. The second period saw action turn Ottawa's way when Jared Cowen and Spezza scored 15 seconds apart midway through to make it 4-2. Turris' play with Conacher and Clarke MacArthur was one bright spot for the Senators. Cowen's goal came on a shot from the blue line while the Maple Leafs scrambled in their end. Spezza's goal went to the far side on James Reimer from in close and forced a goalie change. From that point on, backup Jonathan Bernier would keep the Maple Leafs in it. Late in the second, Joffrey Lupul drew a penalty and scored on the power play to make it 4-3 heading to the third. The Maple Leafs tied the game at 4-4 on James van Riemsdyk's second goal of the year, 2:52 into the period. Ottawa took a penalty late in overtime, a hook by Cowen, but the Maple Leafs did not convert. Raymond and Tyler Bozak scored in the shootout, and Bernier held the Senators off the board.

Philadelphia v Montreal 1-4 - Lars Eller and his youthful linemates Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher are making it difficult for Montreal Canadiens coach Michel Therrien to keep them on the bench. Eller, Galchenyuk and Gallagher led the way offensively for a second straight game and Carey Price made 22 saves to give the Montreal Canadiens their first victory of the season, 4-1 against the Philadelphia Flyers at Bell Centre on Saturday night. Gallagher and Eller each had a goal and an assist, and Galchenyuk had two assists for the Canadiens, giving the youthful line five goals and seven assists in two games. The rest of the Canadiens have combined for two goals and five assists, including a goal and an assist each for captain Brian Gionta and Rene Bourque on Saturday. Local product Vincent Lecavalier, who was booed all night by the 21,273 in attendance for choosing not to sign with the Canadiens as a free agent in July, scored his first goal with the Flyers on a power play at 9:13 of the third period to make it 3-1. The Flyers' lack of discipline hurt them in this game; they gave the Canadiens nine power plays, including two 5-on-3 opportunities. Montreal capitalized on the second of those two-man advantages when Gallagher scored off a nice feed in front from Galchenyuk at 5:00 of the third period to make it 3-0. Montreal forward Daniel Briere played his first game against Philadelphia since the Flyers bought out his contract this summer but did not have one of his better games; he took two minor penalties and produced little offensively despite playing 5:02 on the power play. After Gionta opened the scoring at 8:10 of the first period on a nice feed from Bourque, the game settled into an exchange of power-play opportunities that went nowhere until the third period. Eller scored his third goal of the season 12 seconds into the third, sweeping a sharp-angled shot past Emery after gathering a puck off a Gallagher shot that missed the net to put Montreal up 2-0. Gallagher and Lecavalier then exchanged power-play goals, but Nick Grossman took a slashing penalty nine seconds after Lecavalier's goal to cut any momentum Philadelphia may have had. Bourque scored his first of the season at 19:03 of the third period on a power play off a feed from Gionta to ice the game for the Canadiens, who embark on a four-game Western Canada road trip starting Wednesday against the Calgary Flames.

Columbus v NY Islanders 3-2 SO - Cam Atkinson scored the winner in fourth round of the shootout as the Blue Jackets rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period for a 3-2 victory Saturday night, spoiling the evening for the sellout crowd of 16,170 that welcomed the Islanders back to Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. After Columbus' Mark Letestu scored in the second round of the shootout and Matt Moulson tied on the Islanders' third chance, Atkinson got the winner in the fourth round when he deked Evgeni Nabokov, went around him and slid the puck into the net. John Tavares, who admittedly had a poor game in Friday's 4-3 shootout win against the New Jersey Devils in Newark, set up second-period goals by Lubomir Visnovsky and Moulson to put New York ahead 2-0 after two periods. But Letestu's power-play goal 7:45 into the third period gave the Blue Jackets some life, and Nick Foligno tied the game with 8:06 remaining in regulation. The Blue Jackets, who lost 4-3 to the Calgary Flames on Friday night at Nationwide Arena, needed a great pad save by Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky on Frans Nielsen in the final five seconds of regulation to secure a point. Nabokov then denied Columbus a victory in overtime by robbing Letestu and Jack Johnson after New York failed to convert on a late power play that carried into the extra period. Nabokov also denied R.J. Umberger from the lower right circle with 90 seconds left in OT. Though both teams played Friday, the first 10 minutes were played at a breakneck pace, though neither managed much in the way of scoring chances. Columbus had its best opportunity of the period just after the halfway mark when it wound up with a 2-on-1, but Nabokov cut the angle and gobbled up Johansen's wrister from the lower right circle. The first 20 minutes ended up scoreless, with the Islanders outshooting Columbus 9-4. New York picked up its play early in the second period. Colin McDonald missed the top right corner after being left wide-open in the slot, but New York continued to press the action, controlled the puck in the offensive zone for nearly a minute and earned the game's first power play when Artem Anisimov went off for hooking Michael Grabner at 6:49. That turned into the first goal of the game when Visnovsky played catch with Nielsen before stepping into a straightaway 50-footer. With Moulson creating a screen, the puck sailed past Bobrovsky at 8:17 for the veteran defenseman's first goal of the season. Tavares, who started the play by digging the puck out of a tangle behind the Columbus net, earned the second assist for his 250th NHL point. The goaltenders then exchanged big saves. Nabokov robbed Johansen from the slot with just over nine minutes left in the period, and Bobrovsky slid across his crease to deny Tavares' try though the five-hole on the return rush. Tavares and Moulson, one of the NHL's best two-man combinations for the past few years, showed their chemistry on New York's second goal at 14:01. Tavares fought off a defender in the corner to the left of Bobrovsky and fired a no-look backhand pass to the slot; Moulson slid away from his defender in the slot and was wide-open for the tape-to-tape pass. He made a quick deke before sliding a backhander into the wide-open net for his first of the season. The Blue Jackets, who managed only 12 shots through two periods, got their first power play of the game 6:03 into the final period when Travis Hamonic was called for high-sticking Marian Gaborik, and like the Islanders, they converted. Columbus kept the puck in the zone for nearly a full minute before Letestu beat Nabokov with a high snap shot from the slot off a broken play after New York's penalty-killers had blocked three shots. That goal appeared to invigorate the Blue Jackets, who began to control more of the play and got even when Johansen crashed the net and was credited with the tying goal when the puck appeared to go into the net off Islanders forward Peter Regin.

Florida v St Louis 0-7 - Jaroslav Halak wasn't all that busy Saturday night, but his 19 saves were good enough for his 17th shutout, which passed Glenn Hall for the Blues' franchise record in a 7-0 thumping of the Florida Panthers at Scottrade Center. For the Blues, it was a matter of time until the veteran line of Derek Roy, Brenden Morrow and Chris Stewart would begin to click. Then the line of Vladimir Tarasenko, Jaden Schwartz and Patrik Berglund wanted in on the fun. Roy, Morrow and Stewart combined for six points, with Morrow and Roy getting a goal and assist each. Tarasenko, Schwartz and Berglund combined for six points, with Schwartz getting a goal and two assists, and Tarasenko scoring a goal and an assist. Schwartz earned a Gordie Howe Hat Trick after getting into a fight late in the third with Florida's Kris Versteeg. Special teams was the story again in the first period, when the Blues power play was able to put one past Thomas and the penalty kill was 3-for-3. Morrow crashed the net and roofed a backhand over Thomas after the Panthers goaltender made a pad stop on Roy in tight after being sprung free on a Stewart backhand saucer feed. In typical Morrow fashion, he collected the rebound and beat Thomas with 6:02 remaining for a 1-0 Blues lead. It was Morrow's 250th NHL goal. The Blues blitzed the Panthers with four second-period goals, by Tarasenko, Schwartz, Roy and Alexander Steen (penalty shot) in a 6:32 span. Tarasenko scored his ninth career goal at 12:31 when he converted Schwartz's shot from the right boards for a 2-0 Blues lead. Schwartz took a feed in the right circle from Vladimir Sobotka and snapped it past Thomas at 15:07 for a 3-0 lead. Stewart fed Roy in the slot from behind the net, and he beat Thomas at 16:12, then Steen was awarded a penalty shot with 56.8 seconds left in the period, and he dragged the puck to his backhand and slid it past Thomas for a 5-0 edge. Ryan Reeves beat Markstrom short side off a 2-on-1 at 2:44 of the third, and Berglund got his first of the season on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Schwartz and Tarasenko at 4:09 to make it 7-0. St. Louis finished the game killing all seven Florida power plays, and the Blues haven't allowed a Panthers power-play goal on home ice since March 27, 2003, a stretch of 28 straight kills. The Blues have killed all 11 opposing power plays this season and 21 straight over five games dating to last season.

Anaheim v Minnesota 4-3 OT - Mathieu Perreault, traded to the Ducks from the Washington Capitals five days earlier, took advantage of his second Grade-A scoring chance in the final minute by scoring his first goal with his new team. He scored with 4.9 seconds left in overtime to give Anaheim a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday night. Perreault's crazy shift nearly ended 20 seconds earlier in almost the exact same spot it eventually did. But Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom was aggressive coming out of his net and stoned him with a great pad save. The puck caromed off his pad to the stick of Minnesota's Kyle Brodziak; after Perreault fell down, Brodziak and Jason Pominville went on a 2-on-1 the other way, where Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller made a great pad save of his own. Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler then gathered in the puck and dished to Francois Beauchemin, who along with Perreault, were outnumbered entering the Wild zone. But after a Wild defenseman lost an edge, Perreault was free to crash the net, where Beauchemin found him with a pass. Perreault slipped the puck through Backstrom's five-hole for the winner. Perreault also had the primary assist on Jakob Silfverberg's goal 1:19 into the second period; he found Silfverberg in front of Backstrom with a nice feed from behind the net. Coming off an embarrassing 6-1 loss at Colorado in their season opener Wednesday night, the Ducks came out firing early in the game, getting goals from Saku Koivu and Nick Bonino in the first 5:43. Silfverberg's goal in the second made it 3-1 and it looked like Anaheim was prepared to coast to victory. But the Wild dominated the rest of the second period, outshooting the Ducks 17-8 and narrowing the lead to 3-2 on a power-play goal by Pominville at 8:28. Minnesota tied the game 1:15 into the third period on Zach Parise's second goal of the night. Both teams had man-advantage chances down the stretch but neither could find the net again until Perrault's winner late in overtime. Perhaps more concerning for the Wild is the injury of center Charlie Coyle, who left the game midway through the second period with a lower-body injury after a collision with Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano. After disappearing down the tunnel for several minutes, Coyle returned to the bench shortly before heading back to the locker room. He did not return to the game and his status for Minnesota's next game Tuesday night at the Nashville Predators is in doubt.