Flyers rout Capitals 8-2 to win home opener

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Claude Giroux, Scott Laughton and Sean Couturier each scored two goals to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to an 8-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux and Valtteri Filppula also scored for Philadelphia in its home opener. The Flyers won a home opener for the 28th time in 50 games.

Brian Elliott rebounded from a dismal six-goal outing against Nashville to stop 21 shots and win for the third time this season.

Philadelphia Flyers gather to celebrate the goal by Claude Giroux, center, during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

NHL leading scorer Alex Ovechkin failed to record a goal or assist for just the second time in six games. He failed to score a goal in last year’s season series against the Flyers for the first time in 12 seasons.

Jakub Vrana and Nicklas Backstrom scored for Washington.

PENGUINS 4, PANTHERS 3

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Sidney Crosby scored two goals for Pittsburgh, including a bad-angle deflection in the third period.

Patric Hornqvist and Greg McKegg also scored for the Penguins, who are 8-0-2 in their last 10 games against the Panthers – their longest stretch without a regulation loss in the history of the series. Matt Murray stopped 43 shots.

Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice and Aaron Ekblad also had a goal for Florida. Evgeni Dadonov added two assists, and James Reimer made 29 saves in his second start of the season.

MAPLE LEAFS 4, CANADIENS 3

MONTREAL (AP) – Auston Matthews scored his second goal of the game 48 seconds into overtime, sending Toronto the victory.

Matthews finished a 2-on-1 with William Nylander, beating Carey Price from the left circle for his fifth goal in five games.

James van Riemsdyk and Patrick Marleau also scored for Toronto, which ended a 14-game winless run against Montreal dating to January 2014.

Jeff Petry, Alex Galchenyuk and Jonathan Drouin scored for the Canadiens.

DEVILS 3, RANGERS 2

NEW YORK (AP) – Drew Stafford scored early in the third period and Keith Kinkaid stopped 29 shots in his season debut, leading New Jersey to the victory.

Adam Henrique and Miles Wood scored in the second for the Devils, who bounced back one night after their first loss of the season and improved to 4-1-0.

Rick Nash and Kevin Shattenkirk scored for the Rangers, and Ondrej Pavelec had 16 saves in his first start since signing with New York in the offseason. The Rangers dropped to 1-5-0 for the first time since 1980.

LIGHTNING 2, BLUES 1

TAMPA, Florida (AP) – Nikita Kucherov became the first Tampa Bay player to score in each of the first five games of a season.

Tyler Johnson also scored for the Lightning, who have won four of five. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves.

Vladimir Tarasenko got his fourth goal and Jake Allen stopped 25 shots for St. Louis, which has lost two in a row following a season-opening four-game winning streak.

Kucherov made it 2-0 with a backhander at 6:27 of the third.

JETS 2, HURRICANES 1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) – Nikolaj Ehlers scored his team-leading fifth goal, sending Winnipeg to the victory.

Ehlers took a feed from captain Blake Wheeler and wired a shot from the high slot over the stick-side shoulder of Scott Darling 6:03 into the third. Winnipeg won its third straight after an 0-2 start.

Bryan Little also scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 shots.

Jeff Skinner had a power-play goal for Carolina. Darling, making his first road start as the Hurricanes’ No. 1 goalie, made 19 saves.

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