Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Sept. 25: NHL Preseason Roundup

Auston Matthews had a hat trick, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto on Monday.

Matthews gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the game, then made it 2-0 at 4:56 of the first period.

Patrick Marleau scored in the second period before Jeff Petry's power-play goal made it 3-1.

Matthews completed the hat trick in the third to give the Maple Leafs a 4-1 lead. William Nylander later scored a power-play goal. Matthews had an assist for his fourth point of the game.

McDonagh's overtime goal lifts Rangers past Flyers

Ryan McDonagh scored with 1:09 left in overtime to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden.

Mika Zibanejad tied it 2-2 for New York with his goal at 5:29 of the third period. Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves.

Defenseman Travis Sanheim scored two goals for Philadelphia. He tied it 1-1 at 5:39 of the first period and gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead with four seconds left in the second with his third goal of the preseason.

Rick Nash gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead when he scored on the power play at 3:16 of the first period off a pass from McDonagh.

Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth made 28 saves.

Greiss, Islanders shut out Devils

Thomas Greiss made 25 saves for the New York Islanders in a 3-0 win against the New Jersey Devils at Barclays Center.

Brock Nelson scored 1:11 into the game off a pass from Joshua Ho-Sang. Mathew Barzal scored a highlight-reel goal during a power play at 14:15 of the first, skating from his own blue line before beating Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid on a breakaway to make it 2-0.

Johnny Boychuk made it 3-0 with 1:19 remaining in the third period.

The Islanders outshot the Devils 17-6 in the first period. Greiss made 15 saves in the second.

Kinkaid made 42 saves.

Devils defeat Senators in Hockeyville game on Prince Edward Island

The New Jersey Devils' youth was on display in an 8-1 win against the Ottawa Senators in the 2017 Kraft Hockeyville game at Credit Union Place in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

Pavel Zacha, a first-round pick (No. 6) in the 2015 NHL Draft, scored two goals in the first period. Nico Hischier, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, had a goal (his third in as many games) and an assist. John Quenneville, a first-round pick (No. 30) in the 2014 NHL Draft, had two power-play goals in 29 seconds during the second period.

New Jersey scored five goals in the first period.

Marcus Johansson, obtained in a trade from the Washington Capitals on July 2, scored the first goal of the game and had two assists. Drew Stafford, signed as an unrestricted free agent from the Winnipeg Jets on Aug. 25, scored two goals, to give him three in as many games.

Stafford, Johansson and Hischier played on a line together and combined for nine points.

Devils goalie Cory Schneider made 21 saves.

Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot scored a power-play goal in the second period. Goaltender Mike Condon started and allowed seven goals on 27 shots in 28:45. Andrew Hammond finished the game and allowed one goal on seven shots.

Bergeron, Pastrnak help Bruins defeat Blackhawks

Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak each had a goal and an assist for the Boston Bruins in a 4-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden.

Pastrnak gave Boston a 1-0 lead 52 seconds into the game, and Jeremy Lauzon made it 2-0 36 seconds later.

Anders Bjork put the Bruins ahead 3-0 at 9:46 of the first period, but Brandon Saad scored with 47 seconds left in the first and John Hayden scored 10:09 into the second to get the Blackhawks within 3-2.

Bergeron scored at 4:10 of the third to make it 4-2.

Malcolm Subban made 24 saves for the Bruins, and Corey Crawford had 19 for the Blackhawks.

Four Red Wings score in win against Penguins

Michael Rasmussen, Anthony Mantha, Tomas Tatar and Xavier Oullet scored for the Detroit Red Wings in a 4-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Little Caesars Arena.

Jimmy Howard made 11 saves on 12 shots for the Red Wings, and Tom McCollum made a save on all seven shots he faced in relief.

Scott Wilson scored for Pittsburgh, which got 23 saves from Tristan Jarry.

Laine scores twice in Jets win against Flames

Patrik Laine scored two goals to help the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Bell MTS Place.

Laine scored his second goal 23 seconds into the second period to put the Jets ahead 3-2. Nikolaj Ehlers scored at 3:49 of the second to make it 4-2.

Mark Scheifele (9:08) and Laine (12:12) scored in the first period to give Winnipeg a 2-0 lead before Sean Monahan (16:15) and Matthew Tkachuk (18:58) scored for Calgary.

Dustin Byfuglien scored with 2:43 remaining to make it 5-2.

Steve Mason made 26 saves for the Jets. Flames goalie Eddie Lack allowed five goals on 34 shots.

Nieto, Kerfoot boost Avalanche past Stars

Matt Nieto and Alexander Kerfoot scored in the second period to help the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

Nathan MacKinnon scored 30 seconds into the game for Colorado. Jonathan Bernied stopped 25 of 26 shots through two periods. Semyon Varlamov made nine saves in the third in relief.

Mikko Rantanen made it 4-2 with an empty-net goal at 19:23 of the third period.

Brett Ritchie and Julius Honka scored for the Stars. Ben Bishop made 20 saves.


Teravainen, Staal score twice in Hurricanes win against Oilers
Teuvo Teravainen and Jordan Staal each scored two goals for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 6-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.

Teravainen scored on the power play at 6:25 and 18:54 of the first period. Ryan Strome scored for the Oilers at 17:51 to tie it 1-1.

Lucas Wallmark scored shorthanded to give Carolina a 3-1 lead at 11:09 of the second period, and Janne Kuokkanen's power-play goal at 13:09 made it 4-1.

Kailer Yamamoto scored his fifth goal of the preseason on the power play with 1:26 left in the second to get the Oilers within 4-2, but Staal scored 42 seconds into the third and again at 6:49 to make it 6-2.

Scott Darling made 19 saves for the Hurricanes. Oilers goalie Cam Talbot allowed six goals on 29 shots.


Ducks rally for win against Coyotes

Dennis Rasmussen and Rickard Rakell scored in the third period, and the Anaheim Ducks rallied for a 6-4 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Tucson Arena in Tucson, Arizona.

After Rasmussen tied it 4-4, Rakell scored what proved to be the game-winner for Anaheim with 8:02 remaining.

Nick Ritchie, Logan Shaw and Brandon Montour scored for the Ducks in the second period. Ritchie and Shaw scored shorthanded.

Ritchie scored again in the third period to make it 6-4.

Brendan Perlini, Kyle Wood, Dylan Strome and Mario Kempe scored for Arizona.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Sept. 24: NHL Preseason Roundup

Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves in his debut with the Vegas Golden Knights, helping them defeat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 at Honda Center on Sunday.

Fleury, 32, won the Stanley Cup three times with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009, 2016, 2017) before being selected by the Golden Knights at the NHL Expansion Draft in June.

Teemu Pulkkinen, Jake Bischoff, Tomas Hyka and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored for Vegas. Brad Hunt had two assists.

Scott Sabourin scored for Anaheim at 11:52 of the second period and Giovanni Fiore made it 4-2 at 19:37 of the third. John Gibson allowed four goals on 30 shots.

Fiala scores twice to help Predators defeat Blue Jackets

Kevin Fiala scored two goals to help the Nashville Predators to a 5-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Sunday.

Filip Forsberg, Miikka Salomaki and Pontus Aberg also scored, and Jack Dougherty and Matt Irwin each had two assists for Nashville. Anders Lindback made 16 saves in 30:14. Juuse Saros allowed two goals on 16 shots in 29:46.

Cam Atkinson, Zach Werenski and Alexander Wennberg scored for Columbus. Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves.

MacKinnon, Varlamov help Avalanche defeat Wild

Nathan MacKinnon scored two power-play goals in the third period, and Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves to help the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-1 win against the Minnesota Wild at Pepsi Center.

J.T. Compher and Rocci Grimaldi scored 1:22 apart in the second period, and Mikko Rantanen scored in the third.

Marcus Foligno scored a power-play goal for Minnesota at 19:21 of the first period. Niklas Svedberg stopped all 17 shots he faced through 31:25. Steve Michalek allowed five goals on 22 shots.

Compher tied the game at 14:07 of the second period. Grimaldi gave Colorado a 2-1 lead at 15:29.

Rantanen (6:25) and MacKinnon (12:05, 16:18) helped the Avalanche pull away in the third period.

Dadonov, Panthers get past Lightning

Evgenii Dadonov's goal at 15:02 of the second period broke a tie and helped the Florida Panthers defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 at Amalie Arena.

Jamie McGinn, Radim Vrbata and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for Florida. James Reimer made 27 saves.

Alexander Volkov tied it for Tampa Bay at 14:30 before Dadonov restored the Panthers' lead 32 seconds later. Peter Budaj made 24 saves.

After Vrbata's power-play goal gave Florida a 3-1 lead at 4:34 of the third period, Volkov scored his second goal of the game with 7:16 remaining to make it 3-2.

Huberdeau scored at 18:55 of the third period.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Sept. 22: NHL Preseason Roundup

Steven Stamkos set up the first goal on his first shift in his first game since injuring his knee Nov. 15, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Nashville Predators 3-1 at Amalie Arena on Friday.

"When you don't play for as long as I have it's tough to see how the body is going to respond," Stamkos said. "I couldn't have felt any better tonight than I expected so that was a very positive thing."

Stamkos, who played 19:05 in his preseason debut, passed behind his back to Victor Hedman at the left hash marks for a shot that beat goalie Juuse Saros 33 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead.

"I knew he knew that I was there," Hedman said of Stamkos' set-up pass. "I saw him looking at me before I got the puck so I was trying to stay in an area for him and he put it right on the tape with no look."

Stamkos had an assist on Nikita Kucherov's goal that made it 2-0 at 15:37 of the first period.

Yanni Gourde scored to put Tampa Bay ahead 3-0 at 3:26 of the third period. Austin Watson's goal at 14:05 made it 3-1.

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves, and Saros made 26.

Maple Leafs shut out Sabres

Morgan Rielly scored an unassisted power-play goal 3:23 into the second period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs scored two empty-net goals in a 3-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.

Curtis McElhinney and Garret Sparkscombined for the shutout in the game played at the home of the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs' American Hockey League affiliate.

Husso, Blues shut out Capitals

Robert Thomas scored two goals, and Ville Husso made 27 saves to earn the shutout for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-0 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Friday.

Thomas and Connor Bleackley scored 39 seconds apart late in the first period to give the Blues a 2-0 lead. Thomas, selected by St. Louis with the No. 20 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, scored on the power play at 12:22 of the third period to make it 3-0, andKlim Kostin's goal with 3:32 remaining put the Blues up 4-0.

Capitals goalie Braden Holtby allowed two goals on 22 shots through the second period. Pheonix Copley made six saves in relief.

Maatta scores to give Penguins win against Blue Jackets

Olli Maatta scored with 1:23 left in the third period to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored twice for Columbus. He tied it 3-3 with 7:38 left, 21 seconds after Zachary Aston-Reese gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.

Dubois also tied it 1-1 20 seconds into the second period before Daniel Sprong gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead with 1:01 remaining.

Cameron Gaunce made it 2-2 at 7:41 of the third period.

Sam Miletic gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 4:13 of the first period.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves facing 17 shots in two periods for Columbus. Antti Niemi made 31 saves playing the entire game for Pittsburgh.

Beauvillier helps Islanders hold off Rangers

Anthony Beauvillier had a goal and an assist, and the New York Islanders defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

All the scoring came in the second period. 

Beauvillier's goal broke a 1-1 tie at 11:03, after he assisted on a goal by Casey Bailey at 1:51 when the Islanders took a 1-0 lead.

Vinni Lettieri tied it 1-1 on the power play at 2:00.

Goalie Ondrej Pavelec played the first two periods for the Rangers and Chris Nellplayed the third. Jaroslav Halak played the entire game for the Islanders, who played at the home of their American Hockey League affiliate.

Yamamoto, Pakarinen score twice in Oilers win against Canucks

Kailer Yamamoto and Iiro Pakarinen each scored two goals to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place.

Yamamoto, selected with the No. 22 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, has scored in three straight games. He put Edmonton ahead 2-1 at 5:17 of the second period, and Pakarinen scored shorthanded at 9:31 to make it 3-1.

After Anton Rodin scored to get the Canucks within 3-2 at 4:03 of the third, Pakarinen's second goal made it 4-2 at 4:41. Yamamoto scored on the power play at 12:38 for a 5-2 Oilers lead.

Defenseman Jalen Chatfield scored his second goal in two games to make it 5-3 at 14:23.

Michael Carcone scored a power-play goal 13:17 into the first period to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead, but Leon Draisaitl's goal tied it 1-1 with 36 second left in the period.

Laurent Brossoit made 23 saves for the Oilers, and Richard Bachman had 28 for the Canucks.

Smith helps Flames defeat Coyotes

Mike Smith, playing against his former team for the first time since being traded June 17, made 15 saves to help the Calgary Flames defeat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Smith spent the past six seasons with Arizona.

Johnny Gaudreau scored two goals, andSam Bennett had three assists for the Flames. 

Mario Kempe gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead on the power play at 9:15 of the first period.

Gaudreau tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 12:30, and Micheal Ferland made it 2-1 at 15:42. Gaudreau's goal with two seconds remaining in the second period gave Calgary a 3-1 lead.

Mark Jankowski scored a power-play goal at 5:51 of the third period for a 4-1 lead, and Dysin Mayo made it 4-2 on the power play at 12:27. 

Louis Domingue played the first two periods and made 16 saves on 19 shots for the Coyotes. Adin Hill stopped 15 of 16 shots in the third.

Silfverberg has three points for Ducks in win against Kings

Jakob Silfverberg had a goal and two assists for the Anaheim Ducks in a 4-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Honda Center.

Rickard Rakell, Jaycob Megna and Mitch Hults scored for Anaheim. John Gibsonmade 10 saves on 11 shots in 31:59 for the Ducks, and Ryan Miller made a save on 12 of 13 shots he faced in relief.

Justin Auger and Matt Luff scored for the Kings. Jack Campbell made 19 saves on 20 shots in 31:59 for the Kings, and Cal Petersen made a save on 13 of 15 shots he faced in relief.

Kings defeat Canucks in shootout to sweep China Games

Lisa Dillman / NHL.com Staff Writer

BEIJING -- Jonny Brodzinski scored the only goal of the shootout and goalie Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves to give the Los Angeles Kings a 4-3 victory against the Vancouver Canucks in the second leg of the 2017 NHL China Games Presented by O.R.G. Packaging at Wukesong Arena.

The win, in front of a crowd of 12,759, gave the Kings a sweep of the historic two-game preseason series. The Kings defeated the Canucks 5-2 at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on Thursday in the first NHL game played in China.

Brodzinski, going second for the Kings in the shootout, beat Canucks goalie Anders Nilsson with a backhand shot. Kuemper ended the game when he stopped forward Sven Baertschi in the third round.

Canucks defenseman Christopher Tanev sent the game into overtime when his wrist shot beat Kuemper's with 1:52 remaining in the third period.

Forward Nick Shore gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 9:29 of the first period, taking a pass from Trevor Lewis and beating Nilsson from just below the right circle. Defenseman Jake Muzzin, who had three assists in the game on Thursday, made it 2-0 at 17:07.

Baertschi, who scored the Canucks' first goal on Thursday, finished off a sustained flurry in the Kings' zone by tucking the puck between the left post and Kuemper's pad to make it 2-1 at 8:50 of the second period.

Forward Tyler Toffoli gave the Kings a 3-1 lead at 1:15 of the third, beating Nilsson in close on the glove side. But the Canucks made it 3-2 at 11:52 when Loui Eriksson's shot went off the leg of Kings defenseman Alec Martinez and past Kuemper.

Canucks forward Bo Horvat was scratched because of an upper-body injury sustained in the game on Thursday.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

LIVE: Prospects Challenge - Devils vs. Penguins

The New Jersey Devils prospects and the Pittsburgh Penguins prospects face off in a Prospects Challenge matchup at the HarborCentre in Buffalo, New York.

LIVE: Traverse City Tournament - Blackhawks vs. Red Wings

Both the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings opened up their respective 2017 Traverse City Tournament campaigns on Friday with b both teams losing their respective games. Today, the two face off. 

LIVE: Traverse City Tournament - Rangers vs. Hurricanes

Both the New York Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes opened up their 2017 Traverse City Prospects Tournaments with wins on Friday. Now, the two teams face off today in their respective second games of the tourney.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Caps, Panthers, Lightning, Preds prospect tourney cancelled due to Irma

ARLINGTON, Va. – The 2017 Prospect Tournament, featuring the Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators, at Germain Arena in Estero, Fla., has been canceled due to the incoming hurricane expected to affect the region.

Hurricane Irma is ravaging through the areas of Puerto Rico and the Carribean Islands, and many weather models have it reaching Florida sometime this weekend.