TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — AJ Greer scored his first goal for Florida early in the third period, Aleksander Barkov and Niko Mikkola each had assists in their homeland, and the Panthers beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Saturday to finish a two-game sweep in Finland.
Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues and Matthew Tkachuk also had goals for Florida, which won its fifth straight. Reinhart also had an assist for the Panthers, making him the second player in the NHL to reach 20 points on the season, and capped it with an empty-netter.
Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov had goals 34 seconds apart in the second period for Dallas, which dropped two straight for the first time this season.
Spencer Knight stopped 23 shots for Florida. Casey DeSmith made 20 saves for Dallas.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Saturday:
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BRUINS 3 FLYERS 0
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves for his first shutout of the season and fifth of his career to lead the Boston Bruins to a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Matthew Poitras, Justin Brazeau and Brad Marchand scored for Boston, who won for just the second time in its last six games.
Korpisalo was especially active in the second period, making several athletic saves to keep the Flyers off the scoreboard and halt Philadelphia’s two-game winning streak.
Poitras opened the scoring for the Bruins midway through the first period when he backhanded his first goal of the season from a tough angle on the side of the net past Aleksei Kolosov.
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BLACKHAWKS 4 KINGS 3 (SO)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi scored with 31 seconds remaining in the third period, helping the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings in a shootout.
With Petr Mrazek off in favour of an extra attacker, Bertuzzi awkwardly scored from one knee off Ryan Donato’s centring pass.
Connor Bedard, Teuvo Teravainen and Donato scored in the penalty shootout to get the Blackhawks a much-needed win. It was just their second victory in the past seven games.
Alex Laferriere had two goals for the Kings, who failed in their push to win four straight home games to start a season for the first time since 2010-11.
Los Angeles had won three of four. It lost 4-2 at San Jose on Tuesday.
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CAPITALS 7 BLUE JACKETS 2
WASHINGTON (AP) — Connor McMichael struck twice, Alex Ovechkin scored his 859th career goal and added two assists, and the Washington Capitals continued their dominant start to the season with a 7-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
McMichael and Ovechkin both have goals in three straight games for Washington, which improves to 8-2 on the season.
Ovechkin is 36 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record. He’s currently on pace to finish with 49 goals, which would set him up to hit 895 later this season.
Both Ovechkin and McMichael helped ignite Washington’s offence as the team managed a five-goal first period, where all four lines got on the scoresheet. Damon Severson and Kevin Labanc scored for the Blue Jackets, who dropped both games of their back-to-back.
Logan Thompson made 34 saves and remains undefeated so far in his Capitals’ tenure. Daniil Tarasov stopped 15 of 22 shots for Columbus.
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SENATORS 3 KRAKEN 0
OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Anton Forsberg stopped 22 shots and recorded a shutout against the Seattle Kraken for the second year in a row, lifting the Ottawa Senators to a 3-0 win.
Brady Tkachuk scored in the second period, his team-leading seventh of the season.
Adam Gaudette opening the scoring in the first period with a backhanded chip-in after a coach’s challenge overturned an initial no-goal ruling. Gaudette has scored six goals in his last five games.
Tim Stutzle added an empty netter with just over two minutes remaining.
The Kraken had plenty of chances as the Senators began to run out of gas on the second night of a back-to-back, but had no answer for Forsberg. Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer made 20 saves in a losing effort.
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RED WINGS 2 SABRES 1
DETROIT (AP) — Dylan Larkin scored two power-play goals in the second period and the Detroit Red Wings snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the Buffalo Sabres 2-1.
Cam Talbot made 31 saves for the Red Wings, who lost 5-3 at Buffalo a week earlier.
Alex Tuch scored a short-handed goal for the Sabres, who have lost three straight. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves.
Detroit held on despite getting outshot for the eighth consecutive game. The Red Wings have been outshot 276-181 during that span.
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PENGUINS 3 CANADIENS 1
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored two goals and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1.
Blake Lizotte scored an empty-net goal in the final minute for Pittsburgh. Kris Letang, playing in his 1,100th regular-season game, finished with an assist against his hometown team. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 25 shots for the Penguins.
Christian Dvorak scored for Montreal and Sam Montembeault made 21 saves.
Crosby got the Penguins on the scoreboard with 4:03 remaining in the first period and then made it 2-0 on the power play with 1:20 to go in the second. He is tied with Sergei Fedorov and Joe Nieuwendyk for 14th-place on the NHL’s all-time game-winning goals list. Crosby surpassed Luc Robitaille for 13th-most even-strength goals in league history.
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BLUES 4 MAPLE LEAFS 2
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Colton Parayko scored twice and Jordan Kyrou had a goal as the St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to snap a three-game skid.
Pavel Buchnevich added an empty-net goal with 39 seconds remaining, and Jordan Binnington made 36 saves.
Mitch Marner and Steven Lorentz each scored their second goal of the season for Toronto in coach Craig Berube’s first game in St. Louis since being fired by the Blues on Dec. 12, 2023.
Berube guided St. Louis to the 2019 Stanley Cup title.
Joseph Woll, who grew up in a St. Louis suburb, made 20 saves for Toronto in his first career game at Enterprise Center.
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PREDATORS 5 AVALANCHE 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Roman Josi and Steven Stamkos and Gustav Nyquist each had a goal and added an assist, and the Nashville Predators beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2.
Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg also a scored, and Juuse Saros made 28 saves as Nashville snapped a two-game skid.
Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist, and Justus Annunen made 20 saves for Colorado, which has lost three straight.
Makar started the scoring as he connected on a 4-on-3 power play at 2:54 of the second. Nashville has trailed in three of their four wins this season.
Josi’s goal was his first of the season. His 23 goals in 2023-24 led all NHL defencemen.
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GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4 UTAH 3 (OT)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brett Howden deked Alexander Kerfoot, skated to the front of the net and scored at 2:15 of overtime to keep the Vegas Golden Knights perfect at home with a 4-3 victory over the Utah Hockey Club.
Noah Hanifin had a goal and two assists for the Golden Knights, and Howden also had an assist. Pavel Dorofeyev and William Karlsson scored the other Vegas goals, and Adin Hill made 16 saves.
Logan Cooley had a goal and an assist for Utah, which also got goals from Ian Cole and Kerfoot. Nick Bjugstaf had two assists and Connor Ingram made 31 stops.
Trailing 2-0 with eight minutes to go in the second period, the Golden Knights rallied with three consecutive goals. Karlsson put them ahead by scoring on a rush at 5:37 of the third period.
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CANUCKS 3 SHARKS 2
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Pius Suter scored his second goal of the game with 25.7 seconds left, and the Vancouver Canucks beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2.
Jake DeBrusk also scored for Vancouver, giving the Canucks a 2-1 lead with 4:22 to play. It was DeBrusk’s first goal with Vancouver after signing a seven-year deal in the off-season. Kevin Lankinen stopped 21 shots.
Mikael Granlund had the tying goal for the Sharks with 1:17 to go, and Nico Sturm also scored for the Sharks. Mackenzie Blackwood had 25 saves.
The Canucks entered the game on a two-game skid after winning four straight. They snapped the Sharks’ three-game win streak after San Jose had lost nine straight to begin the season.
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The Associated Press
