Artturi Lehkonen had two goals and an assist, Valeri Nichushkin also scored two goals and the Colorado Avalanche began their title defense with a 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night in Denver.
Andrew Cogliano had a goal, Mikko Rantanen logged four assists, Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon contributed two assists each and Alexandar Georgiev stopped 15 shots for Colorado.
Jonathan Toews and Max Domi scored and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for the Blackhawks.
The Avalanche held a banner-raising ceremony prior to the game, with injured captain Gabriel Landeskog skating the Stanley Cup around the ice. The team gathered for a picture and invited Chicago defenseman Jack Johnson, who played the entire 2021-22 season with Colorado, to join.
Oilers 5, Canucks 3
Connor McDavid scored a hat trick and also had an assist as host Edmonton rallied from a three-goal, second-period deficit to defeat Vancouver in the season opener for both teams.
McDavid became the sixth-fastest player in NHL history to reach the 700-point plateau, getting there in 488 games. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, and Darnell Nurse scored a short-handed goal and added an assist for the Oilers. Jack Campbell made 33 saves in his Edmonton debut.
J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist and Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko also scored goals for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko finished with 20 saves.
Bruins 5, Capitals 2
David Pastrnak and David Krejci accounted for seven points as Boston opened the season with a win at Washington.
Pastrnak (one goal, three assists) and Krejci (one goal, two assists) led the way offensively to give Jim Montgomery a victory in his first game as Bruins head coach. Patrice Bergeron, Taylor Hall and Hampus Lindholm rounded out Boston’s scoring, while Linus Ullmark made 33 saves. The win came at a cost, however, as Jake DeBrusk suffered an upper-body injury and didn’t return for the third period.
Anthony Mantha and Conor Sheary scored for Washington, which had a streak of five consecutive season-opening wins snapped. Darcy Kuemper made 25 stops in his Capitals debut.
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 3
Josh Anderson scored the go-ahead goal with 19 seconds left in the third period to lift host Montreal past Toronto in the season opener for both teams.
Anderson’s winner completed a flurry of goals late in the third period. Sean Monahan gave Montreal a 3-2 lead at 17:30 with William Nylander tying it at 18:10. Cole Caufield scored twice for the Canadiens and Nick Suzuki added two assists.
Michael Bunting and Denis Malgin also scored for Toronto. John Tavares added two assists. Matt Murray made 19 saves in his debut for Toronto, while Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen stopped 29 shots.
Ducks 5, Kraken 4 (OT)
Troy Terry scored twice, including on a breakaway 55 seconds into overtime, and added an assist as Anaheim rallied for a victory against visiting Seattle in the season opener for both teams.
Ryan Strome had a goal and two assists, Trevor Zegras had a goal and an assist and Frank Vatrano also scored for the Ducks, who trailed 4-2 with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation. Rookie Mason McTavish and veteran John Klingberg had two assists apiece and John Gibson made 44 saves.
Rookie Matty Beniers had a goal and an assist and Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jared McCann also scored for the Kraken. Justin Schultz had two assists, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 22 of 27 shots.
Hurricanes 4, Blue Jackets 1
Martin Necas provided a goal and two assists, and Carolina won another season opener, defeating Columbus in Raleigh, N.C.
Seth Jarvis, Brady Skjei and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for the Hurricanes, who won their fourth straight season opener. Frederik Andersen made 31 saves for the victory.
Columbus’ Patrik Laine began the scoring, but the Blue Jackets fizzled in the latter part of the game. Goalie Elvis Merzlikins was scratched pregame due to an illness, so Daniil Tarasov got the start and stopped 39 shots.
–Field Level Media
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