BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jordan Greenway and Tage Thompson scored 41 seconds apart in the first period, and the Buffalo Sabres ended a season-opening three-game skid with a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.
Henri Jokiharju, Mattias Samuelsson and Alex Tuch, with an empty-netter, also scored for the Sabres, who combined for three goals in their first three outings. Lindy Ruff won his first game in his second stint as Sabres coach, 4,257 days after his last victory with Buffalo — a 4-2 decision over Boston on Feb. 15, 2013.
Sam Bennett and Nate Schmidt scored for the Panthers, who have lost two straight since a season-opening win over Boston.
Panthers goalie Spencer Knight stopped 22 shots in his first start since a 6-2 loss to St. Louis on Feb. 14, 2023. He then entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program to help manage an obsessive-compulsive disorder and spent last season in the minors.
UTAH 6, RANGERS 5 (OT)
NEW YORK — Clayton Keller scored his second goal of the game at 4:05 of overtime, and the Utah Hockey Club beat the New York Rangers 6-5 on Saturday night for their third win in three games.
Barret Hayton, Jack McBain, Kevin Stenlund and Dylan Guenther also scored for Utah. Connor Ingram made 29 saves.
Hayton has scored in each of Utah’s three games, and Guenther has five goals.
Artemi Panarin, who led New York with 49 goals and 120 points last season, scored twice. K’Andre Miller, Braden Schneider and Will Cuylle also scored for the Rangers. Adam Fox had three assists and Igor Shesterkin finished with 19 saves.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, PENGUINS 2
TORONTO — Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Saturday.
William Nylander, with two, including one into an empty net, and Matthew Knies also scored for Toronto (2-1-0). Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves to get his first victory with the Leafs. Max Domi had two assists.
Toronto head coach Craig Berube — hired in May after six seasons and a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues — got the win in his team’s home opener.
Leafs captain Auston Matthews, now without a point through three games to open the 2024-25 schedule, wore the ‘C’ for the first time in the regular season at Scotiabank Arena.
BRUINS 2, KINGS 1 (OT)
BOSTON — David Pastrnak scored 3:07 into overtime, and the Boston Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Saturday.
It was Pastrnak’s third goal in Boston’s first three games. He had 47 goals in 82 games for the Bruins last season.
Elias Lindholm also scored for Boston, and Jeremy Swayman had 33 saves.
It was Los Angeles’ first loss of the season. The Kings opened with a 3-1 victory at Buffalo on Thursday.
DEVILS 5, CAPITALS 3
WASHINGTON — Paul Cotter scored twice, giving him four goals through four games this season, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Saturday night.
Capitals star Alex Ovechkin was held without a shot for only the 23rd time in his distinguished career, though he did have an assist and six hits. Washington’s captain started his 20th season 42 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894.
Seamus Casey, Tomas Tatar and Dawson Mercer also scored for New Jersey. Erik Haula and Stefan Noesen each had three assists, and Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves.
The Devils (3-1-0) took the white-knuckle route to protect a two-goal lead entering the third, as the Capitals (0-1-0) scored 95 seconds into the period on Tom Wilson’s slap shot.
CANADIENS 4, SENATORS 1
MONTREAL — Emil Heineman and Cole Caufield scored first-period goals and the Montreal Canadiens went on to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Saturday night.
After Alex Newhook boosted the Canadiens’ lead to 3-0 early in the third period, Tim Stutzle ended Sam Montembeault’s bid for a second consecutive shutout. Montembeault, who made 48 saves in a season-opening win over Toronto, made 24 saves against Ottawa.
Caufield completed the scoring with his second goal of the game and fourth of the season in the third period.
Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson was awarded a penalty shot when he was upended by Jake Sanderson on a rush to the net during a third-period power play. Linus Ullmark, who finished the game with 22 saves, got a piece of the shot which hit the post and went wide.
RED WINGS 3, PREDATORS 0
DETROIT — Cam Talbot stopped 41 shots for his 32nd career shutout in his first start for Detroit and the Red Wings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Saturday night.
J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp and Dylan Larkin scored for Detroit, which lost its season opener, 6-3 to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Juuse Saros, who missed the Predators’ season-opening loss to Dallas, finished with 22 saves.
Nashville forward Filip Forsberg played in his 700th career game.
Talbot, signed to a two-year contract as a free agent during the offseason, had 16 saves in the first period, 12 in the second and 13 in the third.
KRAKEN 5, WILD 4 (SO)
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jordan Eberle had two goals in regulation and scored the winner in the shootout as the Seattle Kraken rallied to beat the Minnesota Wild 5-4 Saturday night.
Tye Kartye and Jared McCann also scored in regulation for Seattle. Andre Burakovsky had two assists. Joey Daccord stopped 34 shots in his first start since signing a five-contract extension Wednesday.
Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello and Seattle’s Oliver Bjorkstrand scored in the first round of the shootout. After the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov missed, Eberle scored. Daccord stuffed Matt Boldy to seal the win.
STARS 3, ISLANDERS 0
DALLAS — Tyler Seguin scored twice, Jake Oettinger made 34 saves in his 11th career regular-season shutout and the Dallas Stars beat the New York Islanders 3-0 on Saturday night.
Seguin shot a wrister from the high slot over Semyon Varlamov’s glove at 7:59 of the first period on a feed from behind the goal line by Mason Marchment.
Jamie Benn doubled Dallas’ lead midway through the second period, collecting a loose puck between the circles when neither Kyle Palmieri nor rookie Maxim Tsyplakov could maintain control and lifted it into the net.
Seguin added an empty-net goal in the final minute.