The Toronto Maple Leafs opened the NHL season with four straight wins for the first time in 17 years with a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Friday.
Phil Kessel’s power-play goal three minutes into overtime clinched the win for the Leafs, who squandered a two-goal lead during a four-minute span of the third period.
“We could have put our head down and stopped skating and stopped trying,” Maple Leafs goaltender Jean--Sebastien Giguere said. “Some teams would find a way to do that and find a way to lose. We found a way to win.”
Rangers forward Brian Boyle got his first two goals of the season to force overtime but New York came up short in their home opener.
Toronto, which took until Nov. 21 last season to record their fourth win, scored three second-period goals, including Clarke MacArthur’s league-leading fifth.
“The second [period] was tough,” said Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who made 34 saves. “We were taking a lot of chances to try to get back somehow and they just chipped the puck and came right back at us.”
The victory marks Toronto’s best start since 1993-1994 when they opened the season with 10 consecutive wins.
Michal Rozsival scored the other New York goal and Kessel and Mike Komisarek had Toronto’s other second period goals.
New York’s Marian Gaborik suffered a separated shoulder and will be out at least two weeks while Chris Drury, playing his first game of the season after breaking his left index finger in training camp, suffered a break to the same finger and will miss six weeks.
Kings 4, Canucks 1
In Los Angeles, the hosts avenged their first-round playoff loss by beating Vancouver.
Jonathan Quick made 25 saves, and captain Dustin Brown scored two third-period goals for the Kings.
Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams also scored for LA.
Vancouver’s Daniel Sedin scored his fourth goal of the young season.
A year after setting Los Angeles’ franchise record for victories by a goalie, Quick has allowed just three goals in his first three starts.
Avalanche 3, Devils 2
In Newark, Craig Anderson made 41 saves to help Colorado hold off New Jersey.
Anderson had 17 of his saves in a one-sided first period. Chris Stewart had a goal and an assist and tough-guy Cody McLeod and T.J. Galiardi added goals for the Avalanche.
Devils’ rookie Matt Taormina scored his first NHL goal and assisted on Ilya Kovalchuk’s third-period tally.
Canadiens 2, Sabres 1
In Buffalo, Carey Price made 22 saves as Montreal edged Buffalo.
Alexandre Picard and Josh Gorges scored for the Canadiens.
Derek Roy scored for the Sabres, who have dropped four straight — all at home — since a season-opening win at Ottawa. Before Roy’s third-period goal, the Sabres hadn’t scored in 118 minutes, 55 seconds.
Penguins 3, Islanders 2, OT
In Pittsburgh, Alex Goligoski scored on a power play at 1:51 of overtime to lift Pittsburgh over New York.
Goligoski’s shot just under the crossbar from the left circle, giving Pittsburgh its first power-play goal of the game after seven -unsuccessful tries.
Eric Tangradi scored his first career goal and Mike Rupp also scored for the Penguins.
Josh Bailey and Radek Martinek scored for the Islanders.
In other NHL play, it was:
‧ Blackhawks 5, Blue Jackets 2
‧ Thrashers 5, Ducks 4, SO
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