Hurricanes edge past Penguis in OT

Goalie Andrew Raycroft of the Boston Bruins watches a deflection by Mike Grier of the Buffalo Sabres go into the net during the second period at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York, on Friday. Buffalo defeated Bostons 4-1. PHOTO: AFP

Cam Ward stuffed Sidney Crosby in the shootout to complete a stellar outing in his first NHL start, and Cory Stillman's goal in the tiebreaker was enough to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.

With the Hurricanes ahead in the shootout after Stillman scored in the first round, Crosby was Pittsburgh's last chance. The 18-year-old phenom skated in and shot low, but Ward was up to the task even after Mario Lemieux and Ziggy Palffy failed to beat him in the first two rounds.

Ward immediately raised both arms after his clinching save and headed to the bench, where he received congratulations from his teammates.

The Penguins tied it with 1:24 left in regulation when Crosby fed a cross-ice pass to Palffy, who backhanded the puck past Ward to make it 2-2. It was Crosby's lone point of the game, giving him a pair of assists in two NHL games.

Stillman and Eric Staal scored in the first period to give Carolina a 2-0 lead. The Penguins got within 2-1 on a power-play goal by Ryan Malone, the only one of the game that came with the man-advantage.

Flyers 5, Devils 2

At Philadelphia, Jon Sim had the go-ahead goal, and Simon Gagne scored twice, leading the Flyers to past the Devils.

Michal Handzus and Turner Stevenson also had goals for the Flyers, who scored five straight.

Jamie Langenbrunner and Alexander Mogilny scored power-play goals to give New Jersey a 2-0 lead.

The new-look Flyers, who revamped their roster and came in as strong favorites to win the Stanley Cup, evened their record after losing their opener to the New York Rangers.

Thrashers 7, Capitals 3

At Washington, Peter Bondra made a successful return to Washington, scoring the opening goal and adding two assists for Atlanta.

Atlanta, shut out in a season-opening loss to Florida, scored its first four goals on power plays. Marc Savard had a goal and his 200th career assist, Marian Hossa had a goal and two assists, and Bobby Holik, Jaroslav Modry, Eric Boulton and Vyacheslav Kozlov also scored.

Bondra, Modry and Boulton were signed as free agents this offseason, while Hossa came over from Ottawa in the Dany Heatley trade.

Mathieu Biron, Brian Willsie and Andrew Cassels scored for Washington, which was outshot 39-22.

Flames 3, Blue Jackets 1

At Columbus, Ohio, Jarome Iginla set up Daymond Langkow's go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Flames beat the Blue Jackets.

Calgary made it 2-1 early in the third period when Iginla streaked down the right wing, deked defenseman Francois Beauchemin and then sailed in on goaltender Marc Denis. Denis blocked Iginla's shot but Langkow, who earlier assisted on Shean Donovan's goal, swooped into the slot to tap in the rebound at the 4:44 mark.

Iginla's assist tied him with Gary Roberts for seventh place on the Flames' career points list with 505.

Darren McCarty added a late goal for the Flames, who had lost their season-opener 6-3 at Minnesota on Wednesday night.

Columbus had tied the game 1-1 when Trevor Letowski was credited with a goal after Calgary's Jordan Leopold accidentally kicked the puck into his own net past a surprised Miikka Kiprusoff. Leopold slammed his stick to the ice in disgust.

Panthers 2, Lightning 0

At Sunrise, Florida, Roberto Luongo made 27 saves for his second straight shutout and Juraj Kolnik broke up a scoreless game with 2:27 left, leading the Panthers to a win over the Lightning.

Luongo is perfect on the season, having shut out Atlanta on 34 shots in the season opener on Wednesday. He is picking up right where he left off before the lockout. During the 2003-2004 season, Luongo set NHL records for most saves (2,303) and most shots faced (2,475).

No goalie with more than 50 starts had a better save percentage than Luongo's .931 and he was fifth in the league with seven shutouts.

John Grahame was nearly as good as Luongo on Friday. He made 30 saves but couldn't deny Kolnik, who helped send the defending Stanley Cup champions to their first loss of the young season.

Panthers captain Olli Jokinen finished the scoring with an empty-net goal with 1:27 left.

Sabres 4, Bruins 1

At Buffalo, New York, Ryan Miller made 35 saves to help lift the Sabres over the Bruins.

J.P. Dumont, Mike Grier, Ales Kotalik and Maxim Afinogenov scored for Buffalo, which improved to 2-0.

Glen Murray scored Boston's lone goal in the third period to break up Miller's shutout bid.

Boston, which dropped its opener against Montreal on Wednesday, is 0-2 for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. The Bruins were winless until their 10th game of that hockey year.

Blackhawks 6, Sharks 3

At Chicago, Illinois, Rookie Pavel Vorobiev had two goals and an assist, and Nikolai Khabibulin made 21 saves for his first win with the Blackhawks.

Jim Vandermeer, Tuomo Ruutu, Tyler Arnason and Jassen Cullimore also scored and defenseman Brent Seabrook had four assists as Chicago clicked for three power-play goals -- including two 5-on-3 conversions -- in seven chances.

Seabrook tied the Blackhawks records for assists and points in a game by a rookie. Vorobiev entered having scored only one goal in 19 previous NHL games.

Khabibulin, who backstopped Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup title in 2004, signed a four-year, US$27 million deal with Chicago in August.

Marco Sturm, Kyle McLaren and Milan Michalek scored for San Jose, which dropped to 0-2.

Once Mattias Norstrom's body heals, Denis Grebeshkov likely is headed out of town.

The Kings, who would prefer to send Grebeshkov to the minors for more seasoning after a disappointing training camp, have had to keep him around this week because Norstrom has been suffering from the flu. Grebeshkov was a healthy scratch Thursday for the second consecutive game.

Instead of Grebeshkov, the Kings chose to go with Nathan Dempsey and Mike Weaver, a fourth-year defenseman who made his Kings' debut Wednesday in Dallas and impressed coach Andy Murray with a scrappy effort.

That leaves Grebeshkov in the unenviable position of waiting for Norstrom to return just so that he likely can be shipped to the American Hockey League.

The Kings hoped Grebeshkov would be able to crack their top six defensemen and be a major part of their power-play unit, but he didn't inspire the confidence of Murray. The coach said he wouldn't keep Grebeshkov in the NHL if he didn't think Grebeshkov could play at least 16 minutes per game.

"I think the feeling was that we have some players ahead of him right now," Murray said.