Thrashers finally get in the win column
One day after Bob Hartley was fired, the Atlanta Thrashers scored 2 goals in the first 6½ minutes, overcame an injury to goalie Kari Lehtonen and finally picked up their first victory of the season, beating the New York Rangers 5-3 Thursday night in Atlanta.
The Thrashers lost their first six games, leaving them as the only winless team in the NHL and leading general manager Don Waddell to fire Hartley. The GM is serving as interim coach, just as he did after dismissing the only other coach in franchise history, Curt Fraser.
Pascal Dupuis put the Thrashers ahead 4:21 in, and Slava Kozlov stuffed the puck past Henrik Lundqvist during a two-man advantage just over two minutes later. Todd White added a short-handed goal midway through the second period, and the Rangers never recovered.
Flyers 4, Devils 0: Martin Biron made 38 saves in his second straight shutout, and host Philadelphia (5-1) proved again it is back as a Stanley Cup contender, beating New Jersey. Mike Richards, Sami Kapanen, Jim Dowd and Joffrey Lupul scored for the Flyers, who won their fourth straight.
Bruins 4, Lightning 1: Marco Sturm scored 2 goals as host Boston beat Tampa Bay in its home opener to give coach Claude Julien a victory in his Bruins debut.
Tim Thomas made 34 saves and Peter Schaefer and Mark Stuart also scored for Boston, which has won four of five since losing the season opener.
Islanders 5, Capitals 2: Bill Guerin scored his first 3 goals with the Islanders, 2 on the power play, to lead visiting New York over Washington.
Senators 4, Canadiens 3: Jason Spezza scored his first goal of the season, Nick Foligno netted the first of his career, and host Ottawa beat Montreal.
After Alex Kovalev scored Montreal's second power-play goal 12:51 into the third to tie it at 3-3, Spezza brought the crowd to its feet as he restored Ottawa's lead 24 seconds later.
Maple Leafs 3, Panthers 2: Nik Antropov's goal with 27.6 seconds left lifted host Toronto to a comeback win over Florida. Bryan McCabe and Jason Blake also scored for the Leafs (3-3-2), who trailed 2-0 after the first period.