Maple Leafs beat Panthers in shootout, 2-1
TORONTO (AP) – Mats Sundin and Darcy Tucker scored in a shootout and the Toronto Maple Leafs overcame 47 saves from Alex Auld in a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday night. Kyle Wellwood scored and Andrew Raycroft made 24 saves for the Maple Leafs, who lost in a shootout to Montreal on Saturday.
Sundin beat Auld in the tiebreaker with a high shot to the glove side.
Todd Bertuzzi followed with a deke and a backhanded shot, but Raycroft made a glove save.
Tucker followed with his goal that won it.
Stephen Weiss scored a power-play goal for the Panthers.
Toronto defenseman Pavel Kubina had to be helped off the ice late in the third after Bertuzzi’s knee collided with his.
Raycroft stopped Jay Bouwmeester on a breakaway with a blocker save in overtime. Auld also made a number of impressive stops in the extra period.
Florida’s Ed Belfour allowed six goals in a loss to Atlanta on Thursday and was expected to start against his former team, but Panthers coach Jacque Martin went with Auld, who was outstanding throughout.
The Maple Leafs continued to have trouble converting scoring chances.
Auld robbed Darcy Tucker of a power-play goal with a spectacular glove save just minutes after Florida took the lead.
After Bertuzzi fired a shot off Raycroft on a power play, Gary Roberts put another shot off the goalie before Weis’ backhander gave the Panthers the lead at 3:56 of the third.
Tucker found Wellwood streaking toward Florida’s end with a nice pass midway through the third. Wellwood skated in alone before his slap shot beat Auld at 11:17.
Blue Jackets 5, Coyotes 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Nikolai Zherdev scored two goals and led Columbus over Phoenix.
Zherdev missed all of preseason camp and the club’s first two games, arriving in Columbus on Sunday from Russia after ironing out visa problems.
He scored on the power play just 1:01 in and added another when he jammed in Rick Nash’s shot midway through the second period to make it 3-1.
Nash and Duvie Westcott each added a goal and two assists, Anson Carter scored his first with Columbus, and David Vyborny had three assists for the Blue Jackets, who had three power-play goals for the second game in a row.
Nash, Westcott and Vyborny have points in all three Columbus games.
Ed Jovanovski scored for the Coyotes, who have lost two in a row after a 6-3 win over the New York Islanders in the season opener.
Thrashers 1, Lightning 0
TAMPA, Fla. – Kari Lehtonen had 34 saves in his second consecutive shutout, and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored a first-period goal as Atlanta beat Tampa Bay.
Lehtonen, coming off a 6-0 win over Florida on Saturday, has five career shutouts. He has allowed two goals in three games this season.
Kozlov put Atlanta ahead 1-0 from the right circle at 12:26 of the first. The goal came after Tampa Bay defenseman Paul Ranger mishandled the puck in the Lightning zone.
Marc Denis made 19 saves for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning outshot Atlanta 17-4 in the second and 28-10 overall through two periods.
Tampa Bay went 0-for-6 with the man advantage and have converted one opportunity in 19 tries this season.
Sharks 4, Flames 1
CALGARY, Alberta – Vesa Toskala made 29 saves, and San Jose got goals from four scorers to stay unbeaten (3-0).
Toskala’s only mistake came on Alex Tanguay’s first Flames goal with 3 minutes remaining in the game.
Steve Bernier, Christian Ehrhoff, Milan Michalek, and Mark Smith scored for San Jose, which continues its Western Canada swing Thursday night in Edmonton.
Having scored just four goals on the season, Calgary (1-2) will embark on a four-game Eastern trip Thursday in Ottawa.