Nicklas Backstrom scored the game-winner in the third round of the shootout as the visiting Washington Capitals rallied from a four-goal deficit to defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-5, on Friday night.
Backstrom fired a wrist shot inside the left post for the 11th shootout winner of his career. T.J. Oshie scored in the first round for the Capitals, but Elias Pettersson evened things up in the second round to set the stage for Backstrom’s game-winner.
Michal Kempny and Evgeny Kuznetsov each scored two goals, and Lars Eller added a short-handed goal and an assist. Washington scored the final four goals of regulation over an eight-minute stretch that began with one second left in the second period. Rookie Ilya Samsonov had 29 saves.
Tim Schaller scored two goals, and Brock Boeser had a goal and an assist to lead the Vancouver. Pettersson and Jake Virtanen also scored goals, and Bo Horvat added two assists for the Canucks. Jacob Markstrom finished with 24 saves.
Avalanche 6, Golden Knights 1
Nazem Kadri and Matt Calvert each scored two goals, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare had a goal and two assists and Nathan MacKinnon extended his points streak as visiting Colorado cruised over Vegas.
MacKinnon, who had two assists, became the fifth player in franchise history to open the season with a point streak of at least 10 games.
Cale Makar scored his first regular-season NHL goal for the Avalanche, who finished their season-long six-game road trip with a 4-1-1 mark. Philipp Grubauer finished with 25 saves to improve to 6-1-1 this season.
Maple Leafs 4, Sharks 1
Morgan Rielly scored with just over five minutes to play in the third period to snap a tie and Toronto went on to defeat visiting San Jose.
Jake Muzzin, Ilya Mikheyev and Auston Matthews also scored for the Maple Leafs, who had 15 saves from goaltender Frederik Andersen.
Kevin Labanc scored for the Sharks, who were playing the third game of a five-game road trip. Martin Jones stopped 25 shots for San Jose.
Sabers 2, Red Wings 0
Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist as Linus Ullmark made 41 saves as visiting Buffalo handed punchless Detroit its seventh straight loss.
Reinhart notched his fifth goal of the season and Jake McCabe also scored for Buffalo, which bounced back from a 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday. Jack Eichel assisted on both goals.
Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for the Red Wings, who were blanked for the first time this season and have scored only nine goals in their current slide.
Coyotes 5, Devils 3
Barrett Hayton scored the go-ahead, third-period goal — getting the best of rival teenager Jack Hughes in the process — as Arizona defeated New Jersey in Newark, N.J.
It was the first career goal for the 19-year-old Hayton, the fifth overall pick in 2018 playing in his first season in the NHL. Arizona also got goals from Nick Schmaltz, Michael Grabner, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Clayton Keller (empty-netter). Goaltender Antti Raanta made 32 saves.
Hughes, the NHL’s No. 1 overall pick this summer, had the best game of his young career, scoring one goal and adding two assists. After going without a goal or assist in his first six NHL games, Hughes is now on a three-game points streak.
Islanders 4, Senators 2
Nick Leddy converted a penalty shot to record the second two-goal game of his career, and also added an assist as visiting New York won its sixth straight game with a victory over Ottawa.
Matt Martin had a goal with an assist, and Derick Brassard scored in his second straight game for New York, which is undefeated since losing three of its first four. Tyler Ennis scored his first two goals of the season for Ottawa, which went 1-for-6 on the power play and is 2-for-33 on the season.
Thomas Greiss stopped 30 shots for his third straight victory in net for the Islanders. Anders Nilsson made his third straight start for the Senators, but was pulled in the second period after allowing all four goals, including two in 70 seconds.
–Field Level Media
