Carolina v Washington 3-2 - Nathan Gerbe broke a 2-2 tie when he scored his third goal of the season 6:59 into the third period to give Carolina its first lead of the game. The League's shortest player at 5-foot-5 had no reservations about venturing to the front of the net, and he was rewarded when he took advantage of a failed clearing attempt by John Carlson. Braden Holtby made a save on Justin Faulk's shot, but John Erskine could not handle Carlson's clearing try, and Gerbe capitalized. The Capitals peppered Anton Khudobin (30 saves) early in the first period, forcing him to make some high-quality stops, but it was a harmless-looking shot by Jason Chimera that eluded him at 5:33 to give Washington a 1-0 lead. Khudobin made the initial save on Eric Fehr's wrister from just inside the red line, but paddled out a long rebound. Chimera outraced the defense, grabbed the puck in the left circle and threw a shot at the net that beat Khudobin for his first goal of the season. The teams then combined for three goals in a 3:16 span of the second period, leaving the game tied 2-2 after 40 minutes. Elias Lindholm, the fifth player taken in the 2013 NHL Draft, scored the first goal of his NHL career at 12:58, corralling a loose puck at the point, curling to his forehand and throwing a shot at the net that deflected off Carlson's skate and fluttered past Holtby's outstretched glove. Alex Ovechkin responded with a deflection goal of his own less than a minute later. Ovechkin's stick grazed Steve Oleksy's slap shot from the point, and the puck took an odd carom off the ice before dribbling past Khudobin at 13:52. Carolina tied it at 16:14 during a 5-on-3 power play. With Joel Ward and Erskine in the penalty box, the Hurricanes worked the puck around until Eric Staal fed Alexander Semin for a one-time blast past Holtby from the left circle. Semin's first goal against the Capitals at Verizon Center since signing with the Hurricanes in the summer of 2012 was met by a hearty round of boos from the sellout crowd of 18,506.
Florida v Tampa Bay 2-7 - The Tampa Bay Lightning played their home opener Thursday and celebrated in style, dispatching the Florida Panthers 7-2 at Tampa Bay Times Forum behind a hat trick and an assist from Steven Stamkos. Valtteri Filppula chipped in with two goals 2:36 apart in the third period. His first, a power-play score, came on a shot from the high slot that Panthers goaltender Jacob Markstrom missed; the second went through Markstrom's five-hole and sent him to the bench at 9:14 with 18 saves on 24 shots. Scott Clemmensen came on in relief but was quickly victimized by Stamkos, who completed his hat trick with blast from the right circle at 12:25. Sami Salo earned his second assist and Teddy Purcell collected his third. Florida finally scored its first power-play goal of the season after 18 chances. It came 59 seconds into the second period and briefly put the Panthers back into the game, down 2-1. The close-in wrist shot by Brad Boyes, his second goal in as many games, was assisted by Brian Campbell and Tomas Fleischmann. That was as close as the Panthers could come. Stamkos scored his second goal when he stole the puck from Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to begin a sequence that finished with Stamkos burying a shot from the circle to the left of Markstrom. Matthew Carle and Ryan Malone got assists. Tampa Bay (3-1-0) stretched its lead to three when Bishop caught the Panthers on a line change and sent a long pass to Alex Killorn in the neutral zone. He found Ondrej Palat cruising in alone from the circle to the left of Markstrom, and Palat made his opportunity pay off for his first goal of the season. Bishop's assist was his first NHL point. The Lightning jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Martin St. Louis began the scoring at 8:13, one second after a hooking penalty to Florida defenseman Mike Weaver expired. St. Louis scored his second goal of the season when he popped a rebound over Markstrom from just outside the crease. Stamkos and Purcell assisted. It marked the first time this season Tampa Bay opened the scoring. Stamkos got his first at 13:54, one second before Lightning forward Richard Panik would have left the penalty box. Stamkos, in the slot, redirected a pass from St. Louis behind Markstrom. Victor Hedman also had an assist. Jonathan Huberdeau scored his first goal of the season in the third period when he took a lead pass from Scott Gomez and deked his way into making Bishop move and slipped the puck behind him. Kris Versteeg also got an assist.
Toronto v Nashville 4-0 - Kessel and James van Riemsdyk combined for Toronto's first two goals, which came after the Leafs were outplayed for much of the game's first 33 minutes. Toronto took a 1-0 lead on its ninth shot with 6:19 left in the second when van Riemsdyk beat Predators defenseman Seth Jones to a puck in the corner off a faceoff in Nashville's zone and Kessel one-timed van Riemsdyk's goalmouth pass past Predators goalie Pekka Rinne. The Leafs went up 2-0 with nine seconds left in the period when Kessel blazed down the right wing and ripped a shot off the near post. Rinne tried to freeze the rebound, but van Riemsdyk poked it away before Rinne could glove it. Van Riemsdyk carried the puck behind the goal and backhanded it into the empty net. With 6:42 left in regulation, Nashville's Mike Fisher received a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding after he sent ex-Predators defenseman Cody Franson, a former teammate, face-first into the glass. Franson bled profusely, leaving a large puddle of blood on the ice that had to be cleared before play could resume. Toronto converted twice on that power play. Tyler Bozak scored with 3:42 left in regulation by converting a feed from Kessel high in the zone. The shot bounced into the net off Jones. Forty-one seconds later, Joffrey Lupul redirected Jake Gardiner's point shot past Rinne for his third goal of the season. With 26.8 seconds left in regulation, Toronto's Carl Gunnarsson was awarded a penalty shot when Craig Smith fouled him from behind but Gunnarsson shot wide on Rinne.
Montreal v Edmonton 4-1 - Brendan Gallagher, Brandon Prust, Alex Galchenyuk and Max Pacioretty scored for the Canadiens, now 2-2-0 for the season and 1-1-0 on a four-game trip through Western Canada that continues against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. Smyth opened the scoring at 2:28 of the second period. He was on his stomach when he redirected Taylor Hall's centering pass behind Budaj. Smyth, who was a healthy scratch in Monday night's 5-4 shootout win against the New Jersey Devils, took a cross check from Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban but still managed to get a stick on Hall's pass. Gallagher tied the game at 9:24 by converting a cross-crease feed from Galchenyuk for a power-play goal. The Canadiens capitalized after defenseman Andrew Ference broke his stick on a clearing attempt. Galchenyuk was able to control the puck and slid it past Ference to Gallagher at the side of the net for his third goal of the season. Prust put the Canadiens up 2-1 at 12:05 by knocking a loose puck past Dubnyk. Subban kept the play alive at the blue line by eluding a pair of Oilers and getting a shot toward the front of the net. The puck was kicked away by Dubnyk, but Prust was left alone to tap in his first of the season. Galchenyuk made it 3-1 at 12:15 of the third when he took a pass from Gallagher on a 2-on-1 rush and buried it for his first of the season.
NY Rangers v Anaheim 0-6 - Jakob Silfverberg let out a soft sigh when asked if he expects to have a big scoring season, given his hot start. It's a tall task to fill Bobby Ryan's 30 goals, and Silfverberg knows it. But there's no denying that the main piece the Anaheim Ducks got from the offseason trade that sent Ryan to the Ottawa Senators is making a big impression after he scored twice to highlight a 6-0 rout of the New York Rangers on Thursday night. Silfverberg's team-leading third and fourth goals came in Anaheim's home opener. He joined Teemu Selanne and Daniel Winnik as the only players in franchise history to score four goals in their first four games. Boudreau has Silfverberg on a line with Selanne and Perrault that showcases Silfverberg's strong skating, hard shot and offensive instincts. His first goal came by going to the net and his second came on a quick rip into an open net. The Rangers were outshot 17-3 in the first period and left the ice trailing 3-0. Vigneault had to adjust lines without Nash, and the Taylor Pyatt-Derek Stepan-Jesper Fast trio was on the ice for all three first-period goals. Ryan Getzlaf buried Corey Perry's pass for his first goal of the season after Perry drove past Ryan McDonagh and slid the puck past a sprawled Dan Girardi at 5:06. Silfverberg scored his team-leading third goal when his swat from the slot of Selanne's pass trickled in at 9:17. Winnik completed the Rangers' first-period nightmare with a shot from the top of the right circle that handcuffed Henrik Lundqvist and went in over his left shoulder at 11:36. The Rangers struggled to take care of the puck for most of the night, and the Ducks made them pay with three more goals in the second period. Lundqvist got caught in no-man's land trying to outrace Selanne to a loose puck. Selanne won the race and slapped a shot off the right post that Silfverberg easily put into the open net at 1:27 for a 4-0 lead. Saku Koivu made it 5-0 at 8:11 with on a one-time finish of Winnik's pass after the Rangers turned it over on a breakout. Penner muscled his way to the net and put Perry's feed past Lundqvist at 16:15.
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