PITTSBURGH (AP) Pittsburgh began its defense of the Stanley Cup with a 3-2 victory over Washington on Thursday, with Phil Kessel beating Braden Holtby in the fourth round of the shootout for the winning tally.
Kessel’s wrist shot over Holtby’s glove was initially ruled no goal but was overturned on replay. Marc-Andre Fleury then saved Alex Ovechkin’s attempt from in close to help the Penguins improve to 5-0 against Washington in season openers.
Patric Hornqvist and Evgeni Malkin scored as the Penguins capped a celebratory night in which they lifted their latest Stanley Cup banner to the rafters.
Andre Burakovsky scored twice for Washington. Holtby made 28 stops, but allowed three goals in the shootout.
In an all-New York showdown to start their season, the Rangers beat the Islanders 5-3, with Chris Kreider scoring the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 25 shots while Michael Grabner, Mats Zuccarello, Brandon Pirri and J.T. Miller also scored for the Rangers.
Nick Leddy, Cal Clutterbuck and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders.
Florida’s Aleksander Barkov scored at 2:48 of overtime to lift the Panthers past New Jersey 2-1.
P.A. Parenteau, claimed off waivers from the New York Islanders earlier this week, scored for the Devils. Jonathan Marchessault opened the scoring for Florida.
The Panthers wore No. 16 jerseys with ”Fernandez” on the back for warmups, a tribute to Jose Fernandez – the Miami Marlins ace pitcher who died in a boating accident off Miami Beach last month.
Dallas’ Antoine Roussel scored the tiebreaking goal as the Stars beat Anaheim 4-2.
Roussel scored 1:23 into the third period, 22 seconds after Andrew Cogliano’s second goal for the Ducks had tied it 2-2. Andrew Cracknell later added a sealing goal.
Lauri Korpikoski and Stephen Johns also scored for the Stars.
Randy Carlyle, who led the Ducks to their only Stanley Cup title in 2007, coached his first game in his return. He was re-hired to replace Bruce Boudreau nearly five years after being fired.
Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson scored the go-ahead power-play goal off a nifty pass from Steven Stamkos midway through the third period as the Lightning beat Detroit 6-4.
Johnson was positioned at the right circle and redirected Stamkos’ feed at 8:34 to put the Lightning up 4-3, just 5 seconds after Detroit was called for too many men on the ice.
Jonathan Drouin, Cedric Paquette, Brian Boyle, Alex Killorn and Valtteri Filppula also scored for the Lightning. Thomas Vanek scored twice for the Red Wings, and Frans Nielsen and Danny DeKeyser added goals
Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher scored twice, including a tip-in on Shea Weber’s shot, in the new-look Canadiens’ 4-1 victory over injury-depleted Buffalo.
Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele scored at 2:41 of overtime to give the Jets a 5-4 victory over Carolina.
Boston came from 2-0 down in the first period to win 6-3 at Columbus, led by Brad Marchand’s two goals and three assists.
St. Louis’ Nail Yakupov had a goal and an assist in the Blues’ 3-2 victory over Minnesota.
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