Lehtonen buffaloes Sabres in shootout
Kari Lehtonen and the upstart Atlanta Thrashers put an end to the Buffalo Sabres' bid for an NHL record start. Barely.
Lehtonen denied all three Sabres shootout attempts and stopped 32 shots overall in a 5-4 win last night, ending host Buffalo's season-opening winning streak at 10. The Sabres will settle for sharing the league record for best start to a season set by Toronto in 1993.
Former Sabre Vyachelsav Kozlov scored the only shootout goal the Thrashers needed, beating Ryan Miller with a snap shot inside the left post.
"I haven't felt like this in a while. I'm a little ticked off," Miller said. "It would have been fun to be on our own, a little piece of history."
Hurricanes 6, Lightning 4 -- Eric Staal and Scott Walker each scored two goals and host Carolina set a franchise record with three scores in 43 seconds in a victory over Tampa Bay.
On the first goal, Staal took a pass along the boards from Justin Williams and beat Marc Denis from the right faceoff circle on the power play to make it 1-1 at 8:23 of the first period.
Penguins 8, Flyers 2 -- Sidney Crosby had his first career hat trick, Maxime Talbot scored two goals, and visiting Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia for its fourth straight win.
Evgeni Malkin, Mark Recchi, and Dominic Moore also scored for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury was sensational in goal, recording 30 saves to help the Penguins extend their longest winning streak in more than two years.
Maple Leafs 5, Canadiens 4 -- Tomas Kaberle got his first career hat trick and Kyle Wellwood scored in the shootout as visiting Toronto beat Montreal and snapped a three-game losing streak.
Montreal's David Aebischer (47 saves) stopped five straight shots in the seven-round shootout after Kaberle scored on the opening shot.
Ducks 3, Blackhawks 0 -- Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 14 shots to earn his first shutout this season and Dustin Penner scored in the second period to help Anaheim win in Chicago.
Devils 1, Blue Jackets 0 -- Martin Brodeur stopped 22 shots for his second straight shutout and Zach Parise provided the winner late in the second period to lead host New Jersey over Columbus.
Islanders 4, Panthers 3 -- Andy Hilbert scored in the 10th round of the shootout to lead host New York over Florida.
Red Wings 3, Blues 2 -- Detroit got two goals from Tomas Holmstrom off setups from Pavel Datsyuk in its victory over host St. Louis.
Oilers 4, Capitals 0 -- Ryan Smyth had a goal and an assist and Dwayne Roloson stopped 19 shots as host Edmonton beat Washington Capitals.
Predators 3, Flames 2 -- Jason Arnott scored two goals and visiting Nashville continued its domination of Calgary.
Rangers 7, Coyotes 3 -- Martin Straka had two goals and an assist and linemate Jaromir Jagr added a goal and three assists, and visiting New York beat Phoenix.
Stars 3, Kings 2 -- Jeff Halpern scored the winning goal with 3:44 left and Mike Smith made 32 saves to lift host Dallas.
