Carolina, Florida, Blues extend season-opening win streaks

Carolina Hurricanes’ Steven Lorentz (78) celebrates his goal with teammate Jordan Martinook (48) during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
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RALEIGH, N.C. — Frederik Andersen made 24 saves against his former team and the unbeaten Carolina Hurricanes matched the best five-game start in franchise history by defeating the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Monday night.

Sebastian Aho, Steven Lorentz and Nino Niederreiter scored second-period goals for the Hurricanes. Andrei Svechnikov added an empty-netter and Jaccob Slavin had two assists.

Carolina also was 5-0-0 in 2019-20.

Jack Campbell stopped 31 shots for Toronto, which is 0-3-1 in its past four games and has managed just one goal in three of them. Auston Matthews opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs with his first goal of the season. His wraparound came 3:25 in.

PANTHERS 5, COYOTES 3

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Frank Vatrano and Joe Thornton scored for the first time this season, and Florida stretched its season-opening win streak to six games in beating Arizona.

Anthony Duclair, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad also scored goals for the Panthers. Spencer Knight made 18 saves. Brandon Montour had two assists.

Liam O’Brien and Phil Kessel scored late goals for the Coyotes (0-5-1). Clayton Keller also scored a goal. Carter Hutton made 10 saves before leaving the game after the first period with a lower-body injury. Karel Vejmelka started the second period and stopped 26 shots.

Florida’s 6-0-0 record extends the best start in franchise history and is the first 6-0-0 start in the NHL since Montreal in 2015-16.

The Arizona loss marks the second time in the franchise’s 42 seasons that they don’t have a win after six games (were 0-5-1 to start 2017-18 season).

BLUES 3, KINGS 0

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals and Ville Husso stopped 34 shots in earning his second career shutout as St. Louis blanked Los Angeles and extended its season-opening win streak to five games.

The Blues are off to a 5-0 start for the first time in franchise history. The Kings haven’t won since their season opener.

The Blues added an empty-net goal by David Perron with about a minute left. Husso made his first start of the season and improved to 2-1 against Kings.

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick had 32 saves in falling to 12-16-3 lifetime against St. Louis.

FLAMES 5, RANGERS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Andrew Mangiapane scored twice and Calgary beat New York for its third straight win.

Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund each had a goal and an assist, and Christopher Tanev also scored for Calgary. Johnny Gaudreau got his seventh assist of the season, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 shots.

Dryden Hunt scored for the Rangers, who had won four straight — all on the road. Igor Shesterkin, making his fifth start, finished with 32 saves.

BLUE JACKETS 4, STARS 1

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gregory Hofmann scored his first NHL goal and added an assist, leading Columbus past Dallas for its second win in three games.

Oliver Bjorkstrand added a goal and his 100th career assist, and Zach Werenski had a goal and an assist. Alexandre Texier scored into an empty net. Elvis Merzlikins stopped 31 shots and is unbeaten in four starts this season.

Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars. Braden Holtby made 22 saves.

SABRES 5, LIGHTNING 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Victor Olofsson scored two goals and Craig Anderson made 35 saves in Buffalo’s win over Tampa Bay.

Drake Caggiula, Vinnie Hinostroza and Robert Hagg also scored for the Sabres in their first win against the Lightning in eight meetings. Tage Thompson had two assists.

The Sabres improved to 4-1-0 at home.

Alex Killorn had a goal for the Lightning, who opened a back-to-back trip with their first road loss of the season. Brian Elliott stopped 20 shots in his Tampa Bay debut.

CAPITALS 7, SENATORS 5

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — T.J. Oshie picked up his fifth career hat trick in Washington’s win over Ottawa.

Alex Ovechkin extended his point streak to six games with his sixth and seventh goals of the season for Washington. Nick Jensen and John Carlson also scored. Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves.

Drake Batherson led the way for Ottawa with his first career hat trick. Chris Tierney and Josh Norris also scored.

Anton Forsberg started in goal for Ottawa, but was pulled after allowing four goals on 16 shots. Filip Gustavsson came in late in the first period and allowed three goals on 15 shots.

The game marked the Capitals’ first road game against a Canadian team since Feb. 27, 2020.