NHL roundup: Vegas Golden Knights' season-opening surge makes history

Vegas stretched its season-opening winning streak to six games, the longest by a defending Stanley Cup champion in league history. Vegas entered play tied with the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers and 1920-21 Ottawa Senators for the longest such streak by a reigning champ.

Thirteen players notched points for the Golden Knights. Cotter contributed a goal and an assist, while Michael Amadio had two assists.

Chicago forward Connor Bedard, the top pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, gave the hosts an early lead to send the United Center crowd into a frenzy in the Blackhawks' home opener.

See a summary of the game at Flashscore

Avalanche 6, Hurricanes 4

Artturi Lehkonen had a goal and three assists, Logan O'Connor scored a short-handed goal for the third straight game and added an assist, and Colorado beat Carolina in Denver to remain perfect through five games this season.

Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan Johansen had a goal and assist each, Mikko Rantanen and Fredrik Olofsson also scored, and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 23 shots for Colorado.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jaccob Slavin had a goal and an assist each, Brent Burns and Michael Bunting also scored, Stefan Noesen added two assists, and Pyotr Kochetkov had 22 saves for the Hurricanes.

Rangers 4, Kraken 1

Veteran goaltender Jonathan Quick won his first start with New York, making 18 saves to continue host Seattle's woes.

Artemi Panarin scored twice and Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere also tallied for the Rangers, who opened a five-game trip. Filip Chytil had three assists and K'Andre Miller added two.

Justin Schultz scored for Seattle, which has tallied more than one goal only once in six games this season to drop to 1-4-1. Goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped 23 of 27 shots. A lighting issue in one corner of the rink forced the teams to switch ends midway through each period.

Red Wings 5, Senators 2

Joe Veleno had the first two-goal game of his career, Dylan Larkin supplied a goal and two assists, and Detroit extended its winning streak to four games by downing host Ottawa.

Shayne Gostisbehere and David Perron scored the other goals for Detroit, which tallied three times on the power play. Ville Husso made 35 saves.

Jake Sanderson and Ridly Greig had the goals for Ottawa, while Joonas Korpisalo stopped 18 shots.

Coyotes 2, Ducks 1

Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves to help Arizona win in its home opener against Anaheim in Tempe, Ariz.

Jason Zucker and Clayton Keller scored for Arizona, which has won two in a row.

Frank Vatrano scored and Lukas Dostal made 25 saves for Anaheim, which has lost two in a row.

Sabers 3, Islanders 1

Jeff Skinner, Mattias Samuelsson and Dylan Cozens scored within a span of just over six minutes bridging the second and third periods to lead host Buffalo past New York.

Eric Comrie, making his season debut, recorded 24 saves and carried a shutout into the final two minutes for the Sabres, who nearly posted their first shutout since Comrie stopped 26 shots in a 2-0 win over the Islanders on March 25.

Semyon Varlamov, also making his first appearance of the season, made 40 saves for the Islanders, who lost both ends of their first back-to-back of the 2023-24 campaign. New York fell to the New Jersey Devils 5-4 in overtime on Friday night.

Canadiens 3, Capitals 2 (OT)

Cole Caufield scored 47 seconds into overtime and Montreal beat visiting Washington after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period.

The Canadiens caught the Capitals on a line change and Caufield took a pass from Nick Suzuki, skated into the zone and beat Darcy Kuemper from the left circle.

Sean Monahan had a goal and an assist, and Brendan Gallagher also scored for the Canadiens, who finished their three-game homestand 2-1-0. Dylan Strome scored a pair of third-period goals for the Capitals, who have lost three of four to open the season. Kuemper made 25 saves.

Canucks 5, Panthers 3

Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson each had a goal and an assist, leading Vancouver over Florida in Sunrise, Fla.

Quinn Hughes, Carson Soucy and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks, who avoided a third straight loss. J.T. Miller had two assists and Casey DeSmith made 34 saves for his second victory of the season.

Sam Reinhart scored twice and Aleksander Barkov had the other goal for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.

Maple Leafs 4, Lightning 3 (OT)

John Tavares scored the game-winning goal in overtime as Toronto rallied past host Tampa Bay.

Tavares finished a two-on-one break, getting a pass from William Nylander with 55 seconds left in the extra session and giving the Leafs a 2-0 record this season in games that have gone past regulation.

Nikita Kucherov had two power-play goals and an assist, while Alex Barre-Boulet scored once as Tampa Bay took its first home loss of the season. Brayden Point had two helpers.

Blue Jackets 5, Wild 4 (OT)

Adam Fantilli scored his first career NHL goal and Jack Roslovic tallied the overtime winner to lift Columbus over Minnesota in Saint Paul, Minn.

Justin Danforth, Kent Johnson and Boone Jenner also scored for the Blue Jackets, who completed a sweep of a back-to-back. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins made 24 saves for the win.

Dakota Mermis and Marcus Johansson each notched one goal and one assist, while Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild, who have lost two straight games. Joel Eriksson Ek and Pat Maroon collected two assists apiece and goalie Filip Gustavsson stopped 49 shots.

Stars 5, Flyers 4 (OT)

Stars captain Joe Pavelski scored 2:13 into overtime as host Dallas beat Philadelphia.

Wyatt Johnston had a goal and two assists, and Pavelski and Jamie Benn had one of each for the Stars. Roope Hintz and Tyler Sequin also scored for Dallas, and Scott Wedgewood made 36 saves.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and Sean Walker and Joel Farabee added one apiece for the Flyers. Noah Cates had two assists. Samuel Ersson finished with 20 saves in his season debut.

Predators 5, Sharks 1

Tommy Novak scored two goals and Juuse Saros made 31 saves to propel host Nashville past San Jose.

Nashville's Kiefer Sherwood and Luke Evangelista each collected a goal and an assist, and Samuel Fagemo scored a power-play goal in his season debut.

Tomas Hertl scored midway through the third period and Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves for the Sharks, who remain the NHL's lone winless team (0-4-1).

Blues 4, Penguins 2

Brandon Saad scored twice as host St. Louis took its first lead of the season and went on to defeat Pittsburgh.

Jake Neighbours and Colton Parayko also scored, and Kasperi Kapanen and Robert Thomas each had two assists for the Blues, who have points in three of their four games. St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington made 31 saves.

Evgeni Malkin and Radim Zohorna scored for the Penguins, who have lost two straight. Goaltender Tristan Jarry, who had been 5-0-0 against the Blues, made 17 saves. Saad, a Pittsburgh native, gave St. Louis its first lead of the season after 199 minutes, 33 seconds when he made it 1-0 at 9:33 of the first.

Jets 3, Oilers 2 (OT)

Mark Scheifele scored with 1:07 remaining in overtime and Connor Hellebuyck made 38 saves as Winnipeg rallied from an early two-goal deficit to defeat host Edmonton.

Scheifele, stationed in front of the crease, redirected Josh Morrissey's pass from the left circle past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner's glove side for the game-winner and his fourth goal of the season.

Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard scored goals and Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each had two assists for Edmonton, which played the final 4:20 of regulation and the entire overtime with McDavid on the bench. McDavid, the reigning NHL MVP and scoring leader, didn't play again after grabbing his left side after a faceoff with Scheifele.

Bruins 4, Kings 2

Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak recorded three-point nights to lead Boston past host Los Angeles.

Marchand scored goals in the second and third periods after recording an assist. His first tally capped off Boston's two-goal spurt in a 48-second span in the middle frame. Pastrnak contributed a goal and two assists. Morgan Geekie also lit the lamp for Boston, and Derek Forbort had the secondary assist on both of the team's second-period goals. Jeremy Swayman made 32 saves.

Alex Laferriere and Carl Grundstrom scored goals and Cam Talbot (21 saves) took the loss in net for Los Angeles, which had won its previous two games. Anze Kopitar played in his 1,297th career game for the Kings, surpassing longtime teammate and former captain Dustin Brown for the most in franchise history.