The Pittsburgh Penguins sent New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to the bench early in the second period of a 6-3 win on Sunday that spoiled the Rangers’ home season opener.
Elsewhere, Thomas Vanek had five points to help Buffalo beat Philadelphia, Chicago played the role of party-pooper again by beating Phoenix, Edmonton downed Vancouver in a shootout, San Jose won at Calgary in the season-opener for both, while a sole goal saw Minnesota defeat Dallas.
Pittsburgh’s James Neal scored twice and Evgeni Malkin assisted on three goals as the Penguins moved to 2-0 from two road games in the strike-shortened season, while the Rangers slipped to 0-2.
Lundqvist was benched with the score 4-1 in the second, while in the other net, veteran backup Tomas Volkoun was preferred to Marc-Andre Fleury and he put in a solid performance.
In Buffalo, Vanek scored twice and had three assists in the Sabres’ 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Vanek became the first Sabres player with five points in a game since 2007-2008.
Defenseman Tyler Myers scored the go-ahead goal with 5 minutes, 3 seconds left after the Sabres overcame a 2-1 second-period deficit.
The Flyers are off to a 0-2 start to their campaign for only the 10th time in team history.
Chicago’s Dave Bolland had two goals and an assist as the Blackhawks won 6-4 at the Phoenix Coyotes.
A day after winning in Los Angeles to spoil the Kings’ Stanley Cup banner-raising game, the Blackhawks did it again by putting a dampener on Phoenix’s raising of their Pacific Division banner.
Marian Hossa scored twice for Chicago, avenging the events of last season when he was knocked out of the playoffs by a blindside hit from Phoenix’s Raffi Torres. Hossa scored 50 seconds before Viktor Stalberg in the second period and again 14 seconds into the third.
The Blackhawks have 11 goals in two games.
Edmonton’s Ales Hemsky scored in the third period to tie the game, than netted the shootout winner as the Oilers won 3-2 at the Vancouver Canucks.
Sam Gagner also scored in the shootout for the Oilers, who were making their debut this season, while Devan Dubnyk stopped both Vancouver shootout attempts.
Roberto Luongo, who was expected to be traded after being displaced as Vancouver’s starter in last spring’s playoffs, made his second straight appearance in the young season and finished with 30 saves.
San Jose’s Patrick Marleau scored a pair of goals to lead the Sharks to a 4-1 win at the Calgary Flames.
Martin Havlat and defenseman Dan Boyle also scored for the Sharks during a three-goal second period.
The Sharks spoiled the debut of new Flames coach Bob Hartley.
The Minnesota Wild had a 1-0 win over the Dallas Stars, with Josh Harding stopping all 24 shots he faced in his first start since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Zach Parise scored his first goal with the Wild, at 8:11 of the first period.
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