CHICAGO (AP) — Morgan Rielly scored 19 seconds into overtime
Jake Allen Jersey , John Tavares had three goals and the Toronto Maple Leafs spoiled Chicago’s home opener with a wild 7-6 victory over the Blackhawks
on Sunday night.Auston Matthews added two goals and two assists for Toronto in
the opener of a four-game trip. Rielly also had two assists and Kasperi Kapanen
finished with a goal and an assist.Garret Sparks made 25 saves to get the win in
his first NHL game since 2016.Patrick Kane scored twice in the final two minutes
of regulation, and defensemen Duncan Keith and rookie Henri Jokiharju each had
three assists.Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat, John Hayden and Brandon Manning
also scored for Chicago, which opened the season with two overtime wins on the
road. Cam Ward finished with 27 stops.HURRICANES 8, RANGERS 5RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)
— Warren Foegele had two goals and an assist, Andrei Svechnikov got his first
career goal to snap a tie midway through the third period, and Carolina rallied
to beat New York.Svechnikov, the No. 2 overall pick in June’s draft, deflected
Justin Faulk’s shot in front of the net with 9:16 remaining to break a 5-5 tie
and give the Hurricanes their first lead. Foegele followed with his second goal
47 seconds later and Teuvo Teravainen added an empty-netter to secure Carolina’s
first home win under new coach Rod Brind’Amour.Jordan Martinook, Jordan Staal,
Micheal Ferland and Lucas Wallmark also scored for the Hurricanes.Jimmy Vesey
and Chris Kreider each scored twice and Pavel Buchnevich added a goal for New
York
Joel Edmundson Jersey , which remains winless in three games under new coach David Quinn.Petr Mrazek made 19 saves for the Hurricanes and Alexandar
Georgiev had 32 for the Rangers in a wild offensive game.KINGS 4, RED WINGS 2LOS
ANGELES (AP) — Alex Iafallo scored two goals and Ilya Kovalchuk had his first
two NHL assists in nearly 5 ½ years, leading Los Angeles to its first victory of
the season.Captain Anze Kopitar and Paul LaDue also scored for the Kings.Anthony
Mantha and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings, and rookie defenseman Dennis
Cholowski had two assists.Kovalchuk’s first point with the Kings also was his
400th career assist when he set up Kopitar’s goal in the second period. The
Russian star then pounced on a puck in the corner during the third period and
made a beautiful pass to Iafallo for the Kings’ third goal. LAS VEGAS (AP) The
Vegas Golden Knights chose to celebrate a monumental moment for the franchise by
thinking back to how its inaugural season began – hoping the new hockey team
could bring smiles to a city reeling from tragedy.Shortly after Vegas became the
first expansion team to clinch a playoff berth with a 4-1 win over the Colorado
Avalanche on Monday night, the mantra in the locker room was the same as the one
adopted shortly before the team’s home opener:”Vegas Strong.”Team owner Bill
Foley, veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and leading scorer William Karlsson were
among those who thought back Monday to the Oct. 1 mass shooting that killed 58
and injured hundreds more on the Las Vegas Strip.”It was a disaster that night,
it was a terrible massacre, we changed our initial opening night ceremonies, I
thought we really connected with the town – I’m so proud of the whole team,”
Foley said. ”From then on, it was pretty unbelievable. We got off to that fast
start. We’ve survived a lot of challenges this year, besides being an expansion
team who nobody picked to do anything.”No expansion team had ever made the
playoffs since the league expanded for the 1967-68 season.”It doesn’t bring
anybody back or we don’t heal anybody,” Fleury said. ”But I hope that we’ve
changed people’s mind a bit and get them to come here and have a good time at
T-Mobile (Arena) and be proud of their hometown team.”Alex Tuch
Vladimir Tarasenko Jersey , Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore and Karlsson each scored, while Fleury improved to 28-11-4 after stopping 28
shots.It was also the 200th career victory for coach Gerard Gallant.”I’m really
happy about making the playoffs, the 200th win doesn’t mean a whole lot,”
Gallant said. ”We always go back to our first home game. It wasn’t about our
team winning, it wasn’t about nothing – it was about the first responders and
the tragedy that happened the week before that.”It was a tough way to start our
season, but I think the guys and everybody supported it well. They all came out
and played an unbelievable game that first night and I just think it carried
over.”The Golden Knights host San Jose on Saturday and are six points in front
of the Sharks in the Pacific Division. San Jose beat Chicago in overtime earlier
Monday.Erik Johnson scored for the Avalanche and Semyon Varlamov made 26
saves.Colorado is 11-7-3 against the Pacific Division and dropped to 7-3-3 in
March. The Avalanche are still riding a 9-3-3 streak but had a three-game road
winning streak snapped.The Avalanche are fourth in the Central Division but
dropped to the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, just behind Los
Angeles, which beat Calgary.”I’m not going to talk about a first-round (playoff)
matchup, we gotta get there first,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. ”I would
have liked to add another point or two tonight, but we weren’t able to get it
done.”Tuch was in the right spot on Vegas’ first power play to punch home a
loose puck and give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. Colorado tied it when Johnson
was there to fire in a rebound.Vegas went back up 2-1 when Marchessault beat
Varlamov with a slick wrist shot. Vegas has scored with a man advantage in 20 of
its last 31 games. Since Jan. 21, the Golden Knights lead the league with a
power-play percentage of 30.4.The Golden Knights wasted no time in extending
their lead in the third period
Alex Killorn Jersey Kids , when Erik Haula fed a streaking Theodore, who put one past Varlamov at the 1:31 mark.Karlsson closed out the scoring with an
empty-net goal, his 40th of the season.”It feels pretty incredible, it’s good to
clinch it at home ice,” Karlsson said. ”It’s been a fun ride, obviously winning
helps it. We had a great start and that set us off for the rest of the year. I
think the whole city came together, the fans have been great, and they’ve helped
us a lot. They fired us up and it was momentum all the way.”NOTES: The Avalanche
had three players skate in milestone games, as Landeskog played in his 500th
game, Tyson Barrie played in his 400th, and Gabriel Bourque notched his 300th. …
Vegas’ James Neal is now three games shy of his 700th. … Marchessault became the
10th player in NHL history to record 70 points while playing for a team in its
inaugural season. … The 18,326 in attendance was the third-largest crowd of the
season.UP NEXTColorado: Returns home to host Philadelphia on Wednesday
night.Vegas: Hosts Arizona on Wednesday night.—
