Evgeni Malkin notched his 500th career goal and Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner on a night when he netted his 1,600th career point as the host Pittsburgh Penguins claimed a 6-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
Malkin became the 48th player in NHL history to net 500 goals. He is the second from Russia (joining Alex Ovechkin) and third player in franchise history (Crosby and Mario Lemieux) to reach that milestone. Crosby is only the 10th player to reach 1,600 points.
Malkin, who contributed three assists to increase his NHL-leading total to nine, has seven points in his past two games. Crosby finished with one goal and two assists. Drew O’Connor and Bryan Rust both netted one goal and one assist, while Jesse Puljujarvi and Rickard Rakell added a goal apiece. Joel Blomqvist stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced in a relief performance of Triston Jarry, who struggled early.
JJ Peterka scored twice for the Sabres after missing two games with a concussion, while Tage Thompson, Jordan Greenway and Ryan McLeod each scored once. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.
Maple Leafs 6, Kings 2
Bobby McMann scored two goals in the first period and Auston Matthews had a goal and two assists as Toronto went on to rout visiting Los Angeles.
William Nylander had a goal and an assist for the Leafs, who have won three in a row. Morgan Rielly and John Tavares each added a goal, Mitch Marner had three assists and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Max Domi and Jake McCabe each had two assists. Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves.
Alex Turcotte and Kevin Fiala scored for the Kings, who are 1-1-2 to begin their season-opening seven-game road trip. With Darcy Kuemper (lower-body injury) sidelined, Kings goaltender David Rittich made his first start of the season and allowed four goals on 14 shots. Pheonix Copley replaced him in the second period and made 10 saves.
Bruins 5, Avalanche 3
David Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm scored 13 seconds apart in the second period and Boston won in Denver to keep Colorado winless through four games this season.
Lindholm added an assist and Cole Koepke, Charlie Coyle and John Beecher also had goals for Boston. Joonas Korpisalo turned away 22 shots as the Bruins won for the third time in four games since a season-opening loss.
Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists each for the Avalanche, who lost another player to injury when Miles Wood left after taking a hard hit from Lindholm in the third period. Ross Colton had a goal, Nathan MacKinnon finished with two assists and Alexandar Georgiev made 20 saves.
Ducks 5, Utah 4 (OT)
Leo Carlsson scored 54 seconds into overtime to give Anaheim a victory over the Utah Hockey Club in the Ducks’ home opener.
Pavel Mintyukov scored two goals, the first multigoal game of his career, and Troy Terry and Robby Fabbri each scored for Anaheim. Lukas Dostal made 26 saves, Mason McTavish added two assists and Carlsson finished with two points for the Ducks.
Michael Kesselring and Jack McBain each had a goal and an assist, Schmaltz had two assists and Barrett Hayton also scored for Utah, which was playing the final game of a four-game cross-country road trip that began against the New York Islanders. Connor Ingram finished with 29 saves.
–Field Level Media