Eric Staal scored two first-period goals as the Carolina Hurricanes spoiled Pittsburgh's season opener with a 4-1 victory on Friday.
Cam Ward stopped 33 shots and took a shutout into the final minutes, Jeff Hamilton had a goal and two assists and Andrew Ladd also scored for the Hurricanes, who earned their first victory by frustrating two of the Penguins' young stars.
Mark Recchi scored for Pittsburgh, but goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was peppered for two periods and Sidney Crosby was neutralized in the 20-year-old's first game as Pittsburgh captain.
PHOTO: AP
The reigning league MVP and youngest player to wear the captain's jersey in NHL history, Crosby was held to one shot in 19:27 of ice time after entering with an average of one point per game in eight meetings with Carolina. Fleury allowed goals on two of the first eight shots he faced, finishing with 22 saves before he was benched during the second intermission.
Blue Jackets 4, Ducks 0
In Columbus, Ohio, Rick Nash had two goals and a career-best four points to help Columbus beat road-weary Anaheim.
Sergei Fedorov and Ron Hainsey each added a power-play goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets, opening their first full season under coach Ken Hitchcock.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks looked tired and disorganized for the first two periods. They opened the season with two games in London -- England, not Ontario -- last weekend. They flew to Detroit on Wednesday before traveling on to Columbus.
Islanders 6, Sabres 4>b
In Buffalo, New York, Mike Comrie scored twice and had two assists in his Islanders debut, helping New York beat Buffalo and open with a victory for the first time since 2001.
Ruslan Fedotenko had a goal and two assists, including the 100th of his career, and Bill Guerin added three assists, while Comrie's four-point game matched a career high. Chris Campoli and Josef Vasicek also scored for New York.
Comrie, who finished last season with Ottawa, centered a newcomer line -- Fedotenko played in Tampa Bay and Guerin in San Jose -- that's finding instant chemistry, and might make Islanders fans forget the team losing Ryan Smyth and Jason Blake last summer.
Capitals 3, Thrashers 1
In Atlanta, Michael Nylander and John Erskine scored two goals in a 2-minute span in the first period to lead Washington over Atlanta.
Viktor Kozlov added a goal in the third for the Capitals.
Brent Johnson stopped 28 shots for the Capitals, who outshot the Thrashers 40-29.
Atlanta was 5-1-2 against Washington while winning the Southeast Division last season, but the Thrashers' big scorers Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa couldn't break through in this opener.
The Thrashers' only goal was scored by rookie Bryan Little in his NHL debut.
Stars 4, Bruins 1
In Dallas, Brenden Morrow scored off an assist from Mike Modano as Dallas improved to 8-0-1 in its last nine home openers by beating Boston.
While Modano got career point No. 1,227, five shy of matching Phil Housley for the most by a US-born player, rookie defenseman Matt Niskanen assisted on the first two Dallas goals. Sergei Zubov had a goal and an assist.
The Stars, who started the season with a loss at Colorado on Wednesday, won their fifth straight home opener.
Sharks 3, Canucks 1
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Jeremy Roenick scored twice -- the 496th and 497th goals of his career -- to lead San Jose over Vancouver.
After losing a shootout in Edmonton the previous night and arriving late in Vancouver, the Sharks got off to a strong start to spoil the Canucks' season opener.
Joe Thornton opened the scoring 5:30 in by turning a 2-on-1 into a breakaway shot.
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