Montreal @ Toronto 4-3 - Tomas Plekanec is centering two players on his wings who are better known for their offensive skills, for the first time, as he said himself, in years. He took full advantage Wednesday. Plekanec scored his second goal with 42.9 seconds remaining in the third period to cap a wild finish and give the Canadiens a 4-3 win against the Maple Leafs. Playing with Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk, Plekanec helped trigger a Canadiens turnaround in the second period, when they began controlling the play after the Maple Leafs took a 2-1 lead in the first. The winning goal was a stroke of luck more than anything else. Plekanec entered the Maple Leafs zone against defenseman Roman Polak and took a shot from the corner that just missed the stick of Galchenyuk charging the net and instead deflected off rookie defenseman Stuart Percy's skate and past Jonathan Bernier. The goal came 96 seconds after Morgan Rielly tied the game with a similarly fortunate bounce in front of Canadiens goalie Carey Price when the rebound of his sharp-angle shot bounced in off Montreal center Lars Eller. PA Parenteau had two assists in his first game with the Canadiens, and Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban scored for Montreal. Therrien's top two lines combined for 16 shots on goal and were on the ice for each of Montreal's goals. The Habs coach even made a point of commending the work of David Desharnais between, Pacioretty and Parenteau.
Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak scored to give the Maple Leafs the lead in the first period, but Toronto was outshot 26-16 from that point. The Maple Leafs had two players make their debut in the NHL, and each got his first point. Brandon Kozun took a shot from the slot that was deflected by Kadri on Toronto's opening goal to tie the score 1-1 at 8:04 of the first period, and Percy had an impressive zone entry on a power play before finding Bozak in front with 37.4 seconds left in the period.
The first goal of the 2014-15 NHL season came on the Canadiens' first shot by their leading goal-scorer last season. Pacioretty got around Phaneuf and beat Bernier with a sharp-angled shot that probably should have been stopped.
Bernier could not have been blamed on any of the next three goals he allowed, and he had to maintain his focus with the puck spending a lot of time in his zone in the final two periods. Plekanec scored on a clean breakaway at 4:34 of the second, Subban was left all alone in a prime scoring area in the slot to score at 8:41 of the third, and the winner by Plekanec was deflected right in front of Bernier.
Philadelphia @ Boston 1-2 - Chris Kelly made sure his return to the lineup was triumphant last night when he scored the game-winning goal with 1:51 remaining in the third period of the Bruins’ 2-1 win against the Flyers on opening night at TD Garden. Kelly fired home a loose puck from the slot after defenseman Adam McQuaid’s broken-stick shot from out high was stopped by Flyers goaltender Steve Mason’s blocker. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 19 shots. Mason finished with 31 saves but couldn’t keep the puck out of his net with the game on the line. Boston outshot Philadelphia 33-20, and the Flyers were 0-for-3 on the power play with four shots on net. The Flyers were limited to 14 shots and failed to score through two periods. Philadelphia tied the game 1-1 at 4:19 of the third when right wing Jakub Voracek circled the Boston net and spun a shot toward the front; the puck deflected off Bruins center Carl Soderberg and then hit Flyers center Sean Couturier before getting past Rask to his stick side. In the first period, the Bruins capitalized on their first power play of the season 55 seconds after defenseman Torey Krug baited Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo into a roughing penalty in the Boston zone after the play had moved up ice. Soderberg carried the puck out of the right corner and drove the net before dishing to forward Reilly Smith at the left hash mark. Smith’s one-timer beat Mason at 10:39 for a 1-0 lead.
Vancouver @ Calgary 4-2 - Radim Vrbata scored the game-winner and Ryan Miller made 23 saves to lead the Canucks to a season-opening 4-2 win against the Flames. The game was tied 1-1 in the second period before goals by Zach Kassian and Vrbata put the Canucks ahead to stay. A Brad Richardson misfire landed on the stick of Kassian, alone to the left of Jonas Hiller, and he batted the puck into a virtually empty net at 5:16 to put the Canucks up 2-1. The goal came just 68 seconds after Paul Byron tied the game by beating Miller between the legs on an odd-man rush. Vrbata's goal at 11:07 needed some help from a video review. After Henrik Sedin's wraparound attempt hit defenseman TJ Brodie's stick and bounced up, Vrbata quickly swatted the puck out of midair and behind Hiller. The goal was originally waved off, but a lengthy video review overturned the decision. The Flames took advantage of a fortunate bounce of their own at 13:19 to pull within 3-2. The puck caromed off the stick of Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler and into the slot, where Jiri Hudler took a tap from Sean Monahan before beating Miller over the glove. But Miller closed the door in the third period, making nine saves before Henrik Sedin fought off a checker and knocked the puck into an empty net with 1:16 remaining and Hiller on the bench in favor of an extra attacker. Miller weathered an early storm and bought some time for the Canucks to open the scoring with 8:05 remaining in the first period, through Alexandre Burrows. On the ensuing faceoff after Byron was whistled for hooking, Dan Hamhuis took a pass from Christopher Tanev and let go a shot through a screen that was directed by Burrows and behind Hiller to put the Canucks up 1-0 at 11:55. A shorthanded attempt by Tanev in the dying seconds of the period forced Hiller to flash a quick glove at the buzzer.
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