The Los Angeles Kings proved to be Vancouver’s nemesis once again on Monday when the defending Stanley Cup champions reopened old wounds from last season’s playoffs with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Canucks.
Vancouver held a 2-1 lead and were just 44 seconds from securing the road win when Russian defenseman Slava Voynov scored to send the game into overtime.
Following a scoreless extra period, Jeff Carter netted the only goal of the shootout, after also scoring in regulation, to propel the Kings to an improbable win.
Los Angeles also stunned the Canucks (2-2-2) in last year’s post-season, when the eighth-ranked Kings eliminated the Western Conference top seeds 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs.
In the regular season rematch, Zack Kassian and Alex Burrows helped the visiting Canucks forge a 2-0 lead early in the second period, but the home team rallied to wipe out the deficit.
Carter halved the deficit 15 minutes, 21 seconds into the second period and Los Angeles plugged away until they tied the game in the final minute.
The win was the second in a row for the Kings (2-2-1), who opened the lockout-reduced season with three consecutive defeats.
Bruins 5, Hurricanes 3
In Raleigh, North Carolina, David Krejci scored a tiebreaking goal with 1:50 left and the Boston Bruins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 on Monday night.
Zdeno Chara had a goal and two assists, Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist, Tyler Seguin had an empty-net goal and an assist and Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal for the Bruins.
The Northeast Division leaders remained unbeaten in regulation and opened the season by earning points in five straight games for the first time since 1990-1991.
Eric Staal had a goal and an assist, and he and Jeff Skinner scored 50 seconds apart late in the second period to help the Hurricanes erase a two-goal deficit.
Jamie McBain added a goal and Cam Ward made 33 saves for the Hurricanes, who had their two-game winning streak ended.
Anton Khudobin stopped 29 shots in his first start of the season for the Bruins.
Krejci’s winner came after Horton rang the post. Rookie defenseman Dougie Hamilton’s cross-ice pass found Krejci in the left circle and he snapped the puck past Ward for his first goal of the season.
BLUE JACKETS 2, STARS 1
In Columbus, Ohio, Vinny Prospal scored from a hard angle at 1:22 of the third and Sergei Bobrovsky had 24 saves to lead Columbus past Dallas. It was the Blue Jackets’ first victory since opening night in Nashville in a shootout. They had been outscored 16-6 since while mustering just a point in a shootout loss to Detroit in the home opener a week ago.
COYOTES 4, PREDATORS 0
In Glendale, Arizona, Chad Johnson earned his first NHL shutout in his Phoenix debut as the Coyotes beat Nashville.
Johnson, called up from Portland of the AHL last week after Mike Smith was hurt, had 21 saves in a game dominated defensively by a Coyotes team that entered the night allowing an NHL-high 20 goals in five games.
Keith Yandle had a power-play goal and two assists and Nick Johnson a goal and one assist. Antoine Vermette and Laurie Korpikoski also scored in the Coyotes’ second win in six games.
The Predators were shut out for the second time in three games and have scored just 10 times in six games this season.
OILERS 4, AVALANCHE 1
In Edmonton, Alberta, Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves and Edmonton scored all of their goals on the power play to defeat Colorado.
Ales Hemsky, Jordan Eberle, Shawn Horcoff and Nail Yakupov, into an empty net, scored on the man advantage for the Oilers.
Taylor Hall and Sam Gagner each picked up two assists for Edmonton, who got a strong start to a game after falling behind in each of their four previous outings.
P.A. Parenteau scored for the Avalanche, who have lost two in a row to start a four-game road trip.
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