Vincent Lecavalier stole the puck from goaltender Marc Denis and scored on a wraparound with 3:48 remaining as the Tampa Bay Lightning remained perfect with a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.
John Grahame stopped 20 shots for his seventh career shutout in his first start of the season.
The Lightning (5-0) have not given up more than two goals in a game and have outscored their opponents 17-6 this season. It is the best start in their 12-year history.
Denis finished with 27 saves for Columbus, which lost its third game in a row.
Canadiens 3, Islanders 0
In Montreal, Jose Theodore posted his second shutout of the season, and Yanic Perreault, Marcel Hossa and Andreas Dackell scored to lead Montreal over New York.
Theodore stopped 34 shots for his 19th career shutout. He has allowed three goals in five games. Montreal has not allowed opponents more than one goal in six games since a season-opening 5-2 loss in Ottawa.
Thrashers 4, Predators 2
In Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk scored three goals, raising his NHL-leading total to nine, and Atlanta stayed unbeaten at home.
Kovalchuk scored into an empty net with a minute left, completing his second hat trick in three games. Atlanta has not yet lost in regulation, falling only to Tampa Bay in overtime on Tuesday.
J.P. Vigier had his first goal of the season for Atlanta.
Nashville's Jordin Tootoo, the first person of Inuit descent to play in the NHL, scored his first career goal to give the Predators a 2-0 lead just 5 1/2 minutes into the first period. But for the second time in two games, Atlanta rallied from a two-goal deficit, this time with three goals in 3 1/2 minutes.
Hurricanes 2, Bruins 0
In Boston, Eric Staal scored his first NHL goal and Kevin Weekes made 18 saves as Carolina earned its first victory this season.
Carolina (1-2-3) hadn't won since March 12, going 0-11-5 in that span -- dating to last season. The Hurricanes were the last NHL team to win this season.
Staal, the No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft, scored on the Hurricanes' second shot of the game. Jeff O'Neill scored at 12:47 of the third period.
Boston had a four-game winning streak and five-game unbeaten streak snapped.
Andrew Raycroft made 30 saves for the Bruins (4-2-2) and has only allowed six goals in four starts.
Senators 5, Capitals 1
In Ottawa, Marian Hossa had a goal and an assist as Ottawa broke the game open in the third period and beat Washington.
Radek Bonk, Bryan Smolinski, Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara also scored for the Senators. Martin Havlat had two assists in his first game since the restricted free agent signed a one-year contract.
Patrick Lalime made 17 saves.
Peter Bondra scored for the Capitals, who are winless in their last six games (0-5-1). Olaf Kolzig stopped 22 shots before being replaced by Sebastien Charpentier.
Maple Leafs 5, Coyotes 4
In Phoenix, Owen Nolan had two goals and an assist in Toronto's best offensive showing this season.
Nik Antropov, Joe Nieuwendyk and Ken Klee also scored for the Maple Leafs, who came in with 10 goals in six games. They had half that many before the second period ended, and needed them to withstand the Coyotes in the third.
Leafs goalie Mikael Tellqvist made 12 of his 29 saves in the third period, allowing Ladislav Nagy's second power-play goal of the game in the frame.
Jan Hrdina and Daymond Langkow had the other goals for Phoenix, which has lost three in a row.
Sabres 5, Kings 1
In Los Angeles, Taylor Pyatt had a power-play goal and a short-handed tally, and Curtis Brown also scored short-handed as Buffalo beat Los Angeles.
Miroslav Satan had a power-play goal, Chris Taylor also scored, and Martin Biron made 25 saves, losing his shutout bid early in the third period.
In other NHL games: Blackhawks 3, Sharks 3; Avalanche 6, Oilers 1
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB