Jaskin, Schenn lift Blues over Hurricanes 2-1

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Dmitri Jaskin had spent some important minutes in the press box during the first 10 games of the St. Louis Blues’ season.

But he showed on Friday night he can be up for some ice time.

Jaskin scored his first goal of the season and Brayden Schenn added the game-winner, giving the Blues a 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Jaskin had been a healthy scratch in three of St. Louis’ first 10 games, with one assist over that span.

“We took one penalty, and off the top of my head that’s the best we’ve done so far this year,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said. “So yeah we did a pretty good job with that. . (Jaskin) got a big goal. We want to make sure everybody’s involved here. And he’s a big part of this group.”

It was the second straight win for the Blues, who are 3-0 at home and return there Saturday night against Columbus.

Jeff Skinner had the Carolina goal.

St. Louis goalie Carter Hutton (3-0) stopped 25 shots.

“I’ve been a healthy scratch before,” Jaskin said. “You just have to focus on the game and keep growing. Our line was great and the whole team was great. It was a great game for us.”

Cam Ward (1-1) made the start in goal for Carolina, his 626th appearance, to give him sixth place on the team career list. It was the 2006 Conn Smythe Award winner’s second start of the season as the backup to Scott Darling, and he finished with 32 saves.

Hurricanes left wing Teuvo Teravainen suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and did not return to the game.

“I thought Ward was real good,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “I thought he was real subtle around the net to cut off plays with his stick. He was solid and gave us a chance. (St. Louis) got in lanes, there was no question about that. They had multiple players that had big blocks.”

Each team had seven shots on goal in a penalty-free first period.

Jaskin finally lit the lamp at 14:38 of the second, scoring his first goal of the season on a loose puck in the slot with Oskar Sundqvist and Magnus Paarjarvi assisting.

But the Hurricanes tied it just 64 seconds later, as Skinner picked up a puck Justin Williams had left for him on the left doorstep and slid it into the net.

The Blues killed off a power play midway through the third, then worked hard for the go-ahead goal. Schenn picked it up on a rebound from Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Taraschenko at 10:41.

“They’re a good team,” Schenn said. “It’s always a skating game with in-your-face checking. They have a lot of skill and good skaters and don’t give us a whole lot, but we got the bounce we needed.”

NOTES: Hurricanes D Klas Dahlbeck and C Janne Kuokkanen were healthy scratches. . Former Blues F Lee Stempniak is on injured reserve with Carolina. . RW Chris Thorburn and D Nate Prosser were healthy extras for the Blues. . Carolina and St. Louis will play only twice this season, as they will square off again on Dec. 30 in St. Louis.

UP NEXT

Blues: Host Columbus on Saturday night in the opener of a four-game homestand.

Hurricanes: Host Anaheim on Sunday in the finale of their two-game homestand.

Blue Jackets rally to beat Winnipeg 2-1 in overtime

By MITCH STACY
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Josh Anderson saw Winnipeg goaltender Steve Mason lose his stick, and he fired away for the overtime winner.

Anderson took three consecutive shots, with Mason dropping his stick while making the first save. Mason managed to block the second with his pads, but Anderson came around again and beat him from the slot, finishing off the Columbus Blue Jackets’ rally for a 2-1 victory over the Jets on Friday night.

Columbus is 7-3-0, its best 10-game start in franchise history.

“It’s not how you played the 40 or 50 minutes, it’s finding a way to win a game when it’s there, when you’re still involved in it,” Columbus coach John Tortorella said. “I am thrilled we win this type of hockey game.”

The goal by Anderson 2:38 into overtime, his third of the season, capped the comeback victory. Cam Atkinson scored for the Blue Jackets midway through the third period to tie it.

“That was a tough one,” Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler said. “We had them where we wanted them. It’s just too bad we weren’t able to close it out.”

The winning goal came shortly after Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky blocked and fell on a point-blank shot from Wheeler in the OT period. Bobrovsky finished with 29 saves.

“I don’t think we gave them much,” Tortorella said. “But when we did give them something, Bob made some key saves at key times.”

Mason, who played in Columbus for the first five seasons of his career, stopped 35 shots as Winnipeg lost for the second straight night. The Jets fell to Pittsburgh 2-1 in OT on Thursday.

Columbus prevailed despite a slow start in a penalty-filled game.

Winnipeg’s Brandon Tanev scored 4:52 into the first period. Bobrovsky stopped Tanev’s initial wrist shot but lost track of the puck, which trickled between the goalie’s legs and behind him into the blue paint. Tanev spied it, charged in and netted a backhander for his second goal of the season and just the fourth of his career.

Atkinson tied it 10:23 into the third when he backhanded a tumbling puck past Mason from the slot for his fourth goal of the season.

Winnipeg failed to score on six power plays. Columbus looked better on their four, but also couldn’t score.

“We ground it out as hard as we could, and unfortunately came up short,” Mason said.

The veteran goalie lost his fourth game of the season and has yet to win one, but Jets coach Paul Maurice was pleased with how he hung tough when the Blue Jackets finally found their footing.

“He fought through a lot of traffic to find some pucks and give us a chance to get a point,” Maurice said. “We’re real pleased to get him back on track.”

NOTES: Columbus has won all three of its overtime games this season. ... Anderson skated on the first line with Nick Foligno and Artemi Panarin. He moved up from the third line. ... Columbus plays the third of 17 back-to-back sets this weekend. ... Winnipeg scratched D Tucker Poolman, D Ben Chiarot and F Joel Armia, who suffered an undisclosed injury and was replaced by Marko Dano. ... D Scott Harrington and F Markus Hanninkainen were scratched for Columbus.
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UP NEXT:

Winnipeg: Hosts Pittsburgh on Sunday night.

Columbus: Plays at St. Louis on Saturday night.

Stafford, Bratt score in shootout as Devils top Senators 5-4

By TOM CANAVAN
Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Last season, New Jersey wasted plenty of leads. Now, even if they lose one, the Devils are fighting back.

Jesper Bratt and Drew Stafford scored in the shootout, goalie Keith Kinkaid made a big stop at the end and the Devils beat the Ottawa Senators 5-4 Friday night after blowing a two-goal lead in the final 1:15 of regulation.

“I think last year at the end of the year we were finding ways to lose games, and it’s that extra inch, extra play,” Devils forward Taylor Hall said after New Jersey improved to 7-2. “Stafford, we’re dead in the water in that shootout and he goes out and scores a big goal for us and keeps us alive. Keith can shut the door, so little things throughout the year you can pinpoint that maybe we’re a different team than last year.”

With the Devils trailing 1-0 in the shootout on Tom Pyatt’s goal for Ottawa, Stafford kept the Devils in it by netting a backhand on their third shootout chance.

After defenseman Erik Karlsson missed the net on the Senators’ third chance, Bratt totally faked out Mike Condon on the fourth attempt for the game-winner.

“I try to do a little bit of a shoulder fake, to make the goalie believe I was going to take a shot, so then I just go backhand,” Bratt said. “All the players have something that they work a little extra on so when it comes to a shootout you know exactly what you’re going to do.”

Condon said the moves by Stafford and Bratt were good ones.

“I guess I bit a little bit too hard on the first move,” Condon said of Bratt’s goal. “That’s the NHL. Everyone has three or four moves. If you don’t bite on the first one, he shoots it through you, and if you do, he goes around you.”

Kinkaid stopped Mike Hoffman on the Senators’ last try to give the Devils their second win over the Senators this season. In the first one, the Devils rallied from two goals down and won in overtime.

The Senators were happy with the point, especially playing their second game in two nights.

“We did a good job of coming back and getting that one point,” Karlsson said. “We had a few chances to end it and get that second one but it didn’t happen for us today. Overall, over the course of the two games, we didn’t play any beautiful hockey for all of it, but we did enough to get away with three of four points, and that’s the good part.”

Jimmy Hayes, Adam Henrique , Brian Gibbons and Damon Severson scored for New Jersey, which rallied from a 2-0 deficit with four straight goals.

Trailing 4-2 with less than two minutes to play, the Senators pulled their goaltender and tied the game on goals by Mark Stone and Christopher DiDomenico.

Stone got Ottawa within one by tapping a floating rebound behind Kinkaid with 1:15 to play. DiDomenico got his first career goal with 37 seconds left in regulation after being set up in close by Derick Brassard.

“Brass made an unbelievable play behind the net and I just swung at the puck, put it to the net and the next thing I know it was in the net,” DiDomenico said. “It was good to celebrate the tying goal. We worked so hard on a back-to-back and we never died out there. We never quit.”

Hoffman and Johnny Oduya also scored for Ottawa, which lost on the road for the first time in four games.

The Devils seemed in control when Gibbons broke a 2-all tie with a goal late in the second period and Severson snapped a 73-game goal drought with just under six minutes left in regulation.

NOTES: Play was stopped early in the second period when Stone inadvertently hit referee Brad Meier with a high stick. The official was not cut and stayed in the game. ... Zack Smith returned to the lineup after missing three games with an injury and had an assist on Oduya’s goal. ... Devils G Cory Schneider and forward Kyle Palmieri were out with lower-body injuries. ... Ottawa D Chris Wideman was out after taking an illegal hit from Radko Gudas of the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

UP NEXT

Senators: Host Montreal on Monday.

Devils: Host winless Arizona on Saturday.

Rinne makes 43 saves as Predators edge Blackhawks 2-1

By JAY COHEN
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — The Nashville Predators got off to a slow start, picked up steam in the second period and held on at the very end.

Pekka Rinne was good all night long.

Rinne made 43 saves and Nashville killed off six power plays, helping the Predators edge the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 on Friday.

“Our goalie played real well tonight,” forward Craig Smith said. “Kudos to him and our penalty killers. They were monsters.”

Smith followed Calle Jarnkrok’s first of the season with career goal No. 100, helping the Predators rebound from consecutive losses to Calgary and the New York Rangers. Nashville also lost 2-1 to Chicago in overtime during their first meeting on Oct. 14.

“Obviously, not the start we wanted but we were able to hang in there and then from the second period on I thought we played pretty well and started creating more and more offense,” Rinne said.

Corey Crawford had 28 stops for Chicago, but the Blackhawks lost for the fourth time in five games. Coach Joel Quenneville tweaked his lines in search of more offense and Chicago generated plenty of opportunities, but couldn’t finish with Rinne on top of his game in net.

“Usually if you play that way, you know you’re going to end up with a couple goals,” Blackhawks star Patrick Kane said, “so try to stay with it here and hopefully it comes.”

Artem Anisimov scored in the first for Chicago. John Hayden had a good look at a potential tying goal with 4:15 remaining, but Rinne was there.

The Blackhawks have just 11 regulation goals in their last six games.

“It’s a tough loss, but we played well,” Crawford said. “We can definitely build on a lot of things tonight.”

Nashville was outplayed for most of the first period, but rebounded nicely in the second. Jarnkrok picked off a bad pass by Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith and beat Crawford from the slot 57 seconds into the period, tying it at 1.

The Predators grabbed the lead on Smith’s power-play goal at 11:02. With Jan Rutta in the box for tripping, Smith sent a wrist shot past Crawford on the goaltender’s stick side for his second of the season.

The Blackhawks had three power plays of their own in the second, and the Predators killed off each one. They were outshot 13-8 in the period despite all that time with the man advantage.

“Pekka gave us a chance after that first period, because we took on a lot of shots, a lot of attempts, a lot of zone time,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “He made so many big saves that allowed it to stay 1-0. And we got going after that. We were pretty good in the second and the third.”

Chicago got two of its best scoring opportunities with Nashville on the power play. Brandon Saad was denied on a short-handed breakaway about eight minutes into the game. Rinne turned away Nick Schmaltz on another breakaway late in the first, but Anisimov followed the play and knocked it in for his second of the season.

NOTES: Blackhawks forward Lance Bouma skated off gingerly after he blocked P.K. Subban’s shot early in the third, but returned to the game. ... Nashville swept Chicago in the first round of the playoffs last season. ... The Blackhawks had 21 shots in the first, matching their season high for any period. ... Saad celebrated his 25th birthday. ... Chicago Bulls rookie Lauri Markkanen attended the game and played “Shoot The Puck” before the third period. Rinne said he planned to meet his fellow Finn after the victory.

UP NEXT

Predators: Host the New York Islanders on Saturday night.

Blackhawks: Visit the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

Radulov's third-period goal lifts Stars over Flames 2-1

Associated Press

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Kari Lehtonen had a rough beginning as a backup goalie with the Dallas Stars this season.

In just his second start of the season, Lehtonen made 29 saves to backstop the Stars to a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Friday night.

“I hadn’t played much and now I was able to get a chance and, of course, you want to do well and help the team,” said the 33-year-old veteran from Finland, who was selected second overall by the Atlanta Thrashers at the 2002 NHL Draft. “Everything’s hard. It’s hard to play every night. It’s hard to play once in two weeks. You just have to go out there with a fresh mind and believe in your abilities as a goalie.”

Lehtonen lost his only other start of the season on Oct. 7 and was also tagged with two other losses in relief appearances of Ben Bishop, who the Stars acquired from the Los Angeles Kings on May 5 for a fourth-round selection in the 2017 NHL Draft.

“He was huge at some points in the game,” said Dallas forward Alexander Radulov, who scored the game-winning goal on a power play for the Stars in the third period. “Thank you to him. We all know he’s a good goalie. Doesn’t matter who is playing. You’ve just got to be strong for the team and strong for the group and just try to find a way to win the hockey game. That’s the bottom line.”

Defenseman Esa Lindell also scored for the Stars (6-5-0), who had lost two straight games including a 5-4 decision to the Oilers on Thursday in Edmonton.

Johnny Gaudreau scored for Calgary (5-6-0), while Mike Smith finished with 22 saves.

The Flames failed to score on two chances with the man advantage, while they surrendered two goals in three power-play opportunities for the Stars.

“Five-on-five in our last three games, we’ve given up two goals so our penalty kill and power play needs to start helping us,” Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We are a little passive. That’s what happens when you get scored on, you become unsure of yourself. We have to find that mojo back here to kill penalties.”

Gaudreau notched his third goal of the season at 10:18 of the second when he wired a perfect shot to the top corner, glove side past Lehtonen.

Shortly after Lehtonen stopped Mikael Backlund’s short-handed breakaway attempt, Lindell blasted a point shot through traffic past Smith during the same power play for the Stars at 16:51 of the second.

“I’m just trying to get the shot to the net,” said Lindell, who scored his second goal in as many games and third of the season. “That’s all that I’m trying to do and it worked out.”

Radulov then took a pass from Devin Shore and snapped a shot to the top corner over Smith’s outstretched glove hand for the game-winning goal at 12:50 of the third.

Lehtonen made a shoulder save to stop a shot off the stick of Matthew Tkachuk with 3.3 seconds left in the game to preserve the victory.

“I thought it was a pretty even game tonight,” Calgary captain Mark Giordano said. “Both teams had their moments. The bottom line is we are getting our looks, we just have to put them in.”

NOTES: Jaromir Jagr, who missed his third straight game for the Flames with a lower-body injury, could be ready to return to the lineup for Calgary’s home game against the Washington Capitals on Sunday. . While the Flames played the first of seven straight games at the Saddledome (their longest homestand of the season), the Stars still have two games to go on their trip.

UP NEXT:

Stars: Are at Vancouver on Monday.

Flames: Host Washington on Sunday.

Tarnished Stars hope to display power against Flames

Stats, LLC

CALGARY, Alberta -- The Calgary Flames are having penalty-killing problems just as one of the NHL's top power plays comes to town.

The Dallas Stars, who are second overall with the man advantage through 10 games, visit Friday, facing a Flames squad that keeps surrendering goals while short-handed and driving their coach crazy in the process.

"The biggest issue with the penalty kill right now is our zone entries. We are not stopping people. They're walking into our zone uncontested, setting up. And if you're going to let somebody stay in your zone for two minutes, you can't get a clear, but if you can't even stop them from coming in, you're going to get scored on," frustrated Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan told the scrum following Wednesday's 5-2 loss in St. Louis.

Calgary is 20th out of 31 teams in penalty killing with a 79.5 percent success rate.

The Blues were 2-for-3 on the power play in that game. The Nashville Predators were 2-for-3 the night before but the Flames scored late in regulation to tie and won 3-2 in a shootout.

Gulutzan didn't like what he saw either night.

"I like our in-zone kill; being organized at the blue line right now and denying entries is not where it needs to be. It's not NHL level, and we've got to get it there," Gulutzan said.

The Stars and Flames each enter Friday's game 5-5-0. Calgary is 1-3-0 at home and the Stars are 1-4-0 on the road.

Dallas's power play was potent Thursday in Edmonton, going 3-for-5 to move from eighth overall to second with a 29 percent success rate. Only the Tampa Bay Lightning, at 31.1 percent, are better.

Thursday's performance has the Stars' power play shooting at 40 percent on the road with six goals in 15 opportunities. Calgary has given up five power play goals in 19 opportunities in four home games.

The Stars are not in a good emotional state since they blew a late lead in Edmonton and lost 5-4. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored with 7:44 remaining to tie the game and Matt Benning got the winner with 2:37 left.

Captain Jamie Benn scored twice for Dallas in Edmonton and leads the Stars with seven goals and 13 points. Johnny Gaudreau tops the Flames with two goals and 12 points.

Dallas has begun a five-game road trip with back-to-back losses.

Stars coach Kevin Hitchcock said his team isn't doing enough to win games right now. He mentioned bad decisions like icing the puck multiple times as one of those things that cost them Thursday.

"We iced it three times (in the third period) before they finally scored," Hitchcock said. "We just don't do enough in the details in critical ice to have a better record. We look like we should have a much better record by the way we play but in the details we just don't get it done."

Leaders on the team are doing their part but others aren't, Hitchcock said.

"Other people have step up here. In the details of winning we need to look in the mirror and we'll do that (Friday) morning and get ready for Calgary."

Blackhawks shuffle aces on defense before hosting Predators

Stats, LLC

CHICAGO -- A mini-slump has prompted the Chicago Blackhawks to shuffle their defensive pairings heading into their contest against the Nashville Predators on Friday night.

Veteran blue-liners Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook will be split up and assigned new defensive partners as Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville looks for a spark for his team. Chicago (5-3-2) has one win in its past four games (1-2-1).

Keith is scheduled to skate with rookie Jan Rutta. Seabrook will move to the second pairing alongside Gustav Forsling.

"We want to see how it looks," Quenneville told the Chicago Tribune. "We've seen this look for a while. Maybe the pairs will give us more ... balance or predictability. We need to improve there as well."

A hard-nosed division rivalry game awaits as Nashville (4-3-2) looks to break a two-game winless streak (0-1-1). The Predators knocked the Blackhawks out of the playoffs last season, which prompted significant personnel changes in Chicago.

The Blackhawks earned a small measure of revenge with a 2-1 overtime victory in the teams' first meeting of the season Oct. 14. Chicago's Patrick Sharp and Nashville's Filip Forsberg each scored during regulation time, and Brandon Saad netted the overtime winner for the Blackhawks on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Keith to Patrick Kane to Saad.

Both teams should be well-rested after a two-day break between games.

The Blackhawks have outscored opponents 34-26 this season. Meanwhile, Nashville has been outscored 23-24.

Predators forward Austin Watson said he and his teammates needed to produce more high-quality scoring chances.

"We need to bear down when we do get chances, but I think we have to do a better job of just getting our O-zone play going and spending more time in the offensive zone," Watson told the team's official website. "We've been playing pretty well defensively, and 'Peks' is always solid back there, but we need to generate more offense."

"Peks" is veteran goaltender Pekka Rinne, who is off to a strong start with a 4-1-2 record, a 1.99 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage. In 39 career games against the Blackhawks, he is 17-16-5 with a 2.49 GAA and a .918 save percentage.

The Blackhawks will counter with Corey Crawford in net. Crawford is 5-3-0 with a 2.13 GAA and .937 save percentage this season. He is 16-9-1 with a 2.45 GAA and a .916 save percentage in 26 career games against Nashville.

Kane leads all Blackhawks scorers with 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 10 games. He is followed on the scoring sheet by Saad (six goals, three assists), Ryan Hartman (three goals, six assists) and Richard Panik (five goals, three assists).

Nashville is led in scoring by Forsberg, who has 12 points (seven goals, five assists). The next top scorers on the Predators include P.K. Subban (one goal, seven assists), Ryan Johansen (six assists), Scott Hartnell (three goals, two assists) and Viktor Arvidsson (three goals, two assists).

Chicago is 3-1-1 on home ice this season; Nashville is 1-3-1 on the road.