Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby scored twice and added an assist as the Penguins beat Anaheim 6-4 on Thursday in the first outing of a Pittsburgh outfit that has been overhauled both on and off the ice.
On the first day of the new campaign, Detroit edged Boston in a reprise of their playoff series from last season, New Jersey beat Philadelphia in another 10-goal game and New York’s Rick Nash scored late to lift the Rangers over St Louis.
Pittsburgh’s Pascal Dupuis added a goal and three assists in his return from knee surgery as the Penguins rolled to victory in new coach Mike Johnston’s debut. Patrick Hornqvist, Blake Comeau and Brandon Sutter also scored for the hosts.
Corey Perry had a hat-trick for the Ducks, who collapsed after erasing an early three-goal deficit. Ryan Kesler added a goal in his debut with Anaheim.
The Penguins underwent a massive overhaul following a fifth-straight season that ended without a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. Pittsburgh fired coach Dan Bylsma and general manager Ray Shero and brought in former Carolina Hurricanes executive Jim Rutherford, who hired the well-traveled coach Johnston.
Detroit won 2-1 at home over Boston, with Gustav Nyquist’s power-play goal in the second period standing as the winner.
Justin Abdelkader also scored for Detroit, who lost to the Bruins in the first round of last season’s playoffs. Patrice Bergeron scored Boston’s only goal in this one.
Detroit was without star forward Pavel Datsyuk, recovering from a shoulder injury.
New Jersey’s Dainus Zubrus scored the go-ahead goal in the third period as the Devils went on to win 6-4 at Philadelphia.
Michael Cammalleri had two goals, while Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique and Patrick Elias also scored for the Devils.
Claude Giroux had a goal and Wayne Simmonds scored twice to help the Flyers rally from a three-goal deficit. Vincent Lecavalier also scored for the Flyers, who have lost their opening two games.
New York’s Rick Nash had two goals and an assist, including the tiebreaking score late in the third period, to lead the Rangers to a 3-2 victory over St Louis.
After a fortunate rebound off the glass, Nash scored with 1 minute, 50 seconds remaining off a behind-the-back pass from Martin St Louis in front of the net.
Chris Kreider also had a goal and an assist for last season’s Eastern Conference champions, who lost newly acquired veteran defenseman Dan Boyle for at least a month after he suffered a hand fracture blocking a shot.
Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues and also set up Paul Stastny’s goal.
Chicago’s Patrick Sharp scored the tying goal in the third period, and Patrick Kane had the only goal in the shootout to lift the Blackhawks to a 3-2 win at Dallas.
The Stars had staved off several good scoring chances for the high-scoring duo of Kane and Jonathan Toews before Sharp — who had 10 poinIEts in five games against Dallas last season — netted.
Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith opened the scoring before Trevor Daley tied it. Cody Eakin put the Stars ahead 2-1.
Columbus’ Cam Atkinson scored the tiebreaking goal on a third-period power play as the Blue Jackets won 3-1 at Buffalo.
Artem Anisimov and Jack Skille also scored for the Blue Jackets, while Zemgus Girgensons netted for the Sabres.
Minnesota’s Zach Parise scored one of his team’s four goals in the second period and assisted on two others, helping the Wild overwhelm Colorado 5-0 in their season opener.
Nashville’s Craig Smith, Shea Weber and Eric Nystrom all scored in the third period to rally the Predators past Ottawa 3-2.
Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec scored his third goal of the young season to help the Canadiens recover from a slow start and record a 2-1 shootout win over Washington.
Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman scored a power-play goal 1 minute, 11 seconds into overtime to lift the Lightning over state rival Florida 3-2.
Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler scored twice in 15 seconds and Bryan Little also had two goals as the Jets spoiled the season opener at home for the newly named Arizona Coyotes.
Calgary’s Mason Raymond notched a hat-trick to power the Flames to a 5-2 victory over provincial rival Edmonton.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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