PITTSBURGH (AP) — Phil Kessel scored a natural hat trick and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Thursday night.Vegas scored the first goal Derick Brassard Jersey , and Kessel had the next three — with the final two coming on second-period breakaways. It was Kessel’s sixth career hat trick and first in four seasons with Pittsburgh. His last hat trick came Feb. 1, 2014, with Toronto.Jake Guentzel scored his third goal and Evgeni Malkin had three assists.Casey DeSmith stopped 35 shots in his first regular-season start for Pittsburgh. Starter Matt Murray is day-to-day with a concussion sustained Monday during practice.Reilly Smith scored his second of the season for Vegas and 100th career goal. Tomas Nosek also scored for Vegas, which lost its third straight and has opened the season with four losses in five games.MAPLE LEAFS 5, RED WINGS 3DETROIT (AP) — Auston Matthews scored twice for an NHL-leading nine goals — tying a league record after five games — and Toronto beat Detroit for its third straight victory.Matthews joined Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Marleau, Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy as the players in league history to score nine times in the first five games.Morgan Rielly had a goal and an assist, giving him 11 points. Mitch Marner and Ron Hainsey also scored, and Frederik Andersen made 26 saves. Nick Jensen scored twice for Detroit and Dylan Larkin added a goal. Jimmy Howard had 30 stops.AVALANCHE 6, SABRES 1BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon scored twice to extend his season-opening goals streak to four games, and Colorado beat Buffalo.Mackinnon matched the Colorado franchise record for a goals streak to open a season, set by John Mitchell three years ago.Semyon Varlamov stopped 30 shots to improve to 3-0. Tyson Jost, Colin Wilson, Carl Soderberg and Alexander Kerfoot also scored, helping Colorado improve to 3-1 for the third straight season. Mikko Rantanen set up three goals and has six assists for the season.Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, the first overall draft pick this summer, got his first career point with an assist on Nathan Beaulieu’s goal.RANGERS 3, SHARKS 2, OTNEW YORK (AP) — Brady Skjei buried a wrist shot 37 seconds into overtime to lift New York past San Jose for coach David Quinn’s first career victory.Quinn was hired away from Boston University in May. New York had dropped his first three games in his first season as an NHL head coach.New York’s Brendan Smith tied it at 2 with 2:39 remaining in the third with a one-timer from the slot. Pavel Buchnevich set it up with a backhand pass from behind the net. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 41 shots and Brett Howden also scored for the Rangers. Aaron Dell made 24 saves, and Marcus Sorensen and Joonas Donskoi scored in San Jose’s third stop of a four-game trip.KINGS 3, CANADIENS 0MONTREAL (AP) — Jack Campbell made 40 saves for his first career shutout and Los Angeles spoiled Montreal’s home opener.Jeff Carter had a goal and assist Youth Evgeni Malkin Jersey , and Adrian Kempe and Michael Armadio also scored.Campbell made his eighth career NHL start, getting into action with starter Jonathan Quick day-to-day after sustaining a lower-body injury in practice Sunday. Carey Price stopped 26 shots for the Canadiens.BRUINS 3, OILERS 1BOSTON (AP) — Brad Marchand and Joakim Nordstrom scored in a 36-second span in the first period and Jaroslav Halak stopped 25 shots to help Boston beat Edmonton.David Pastrnak had his fourth goal of the season, and Patrice Bergeron added an empty-netter in the final minute. Connor McDavid scored his first goal of the season for Edmonton, and Cam Talbot had 28 saves. The Oilers were playing only their second game of the season. They lost to New Jersey on Saturday in Sweden.PREDATORS 3, JETS 0NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Pekka Rinne made 29 saves for his 52nd career shutout, leading Nashville past Winnipeg.Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist and Roman Josi and Ryan Johansen also scored. Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for the Jets.The Central Division’s top two teams from a season ago met for the first time since the Jets ousted the Predators in a seven-game series in the second round of the playoffs.WILD 4, BLACKHAWKS 3, OTST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Ryan Suter tied it with 23 seconds left in the third period and Jason Zucker scored in overtime, rallying Minnesota past Chicago.Zucker had two goals and an assist, including a breakaway backhander 3:25 into overtime. Zach Parise sent a long pass across the red line to a streaking Zucker, whose shot went between Cam Ward’s pads to give the Wild their first win of the season.Eric Staal also scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves for the Wild. Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist for the Blackhawks, and Dominik Kahun scored his first NHL goal.BLUES 5, FLAMES 3ST. LOUIS (AP) — David Perron scored his fourth career hat trick, Alexander Steen had a goal and an assist, and St. Louis beat Calgary for its first victory of the season.Joel Edmundson also scored, Brayden Schenn had three assists, and Jake Allen made 31 saves.James Neal, Derek Ryan and Mikael Backlund scored for Calgary. Mike Smith was pulled following the second period after allowing five goals on 24 shots.BLUE JACKETS 5 Jake Guentzel Jersey Kids , PANTHERS 4SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Cam Atkinson scored with 2:46 left to lift Columbus past Florida.With traffic in front of the net, Atkinson swept the puck past goalie James Reimer, who was flat on his back during the play. The Panthers challenged for goalie interference, but the goal stood.Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists, Boone Jenner, Anthony Duclair and Zach Werenski also scored, and Joonas Korpisalo stopped 37 shots. Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and two assists, and Aleksander Barkov, Nick Bjugstad and Troy Brouwer also scored for Florida. Reimer made 27 saves.DEVILS 6, CAPITALS 0NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Kyle Palmieri scored twice, Keith Kinkaid made 21 saves and New Jersey celebrated its home opener with the blowout victory over Stanley Cup champion Washington.Marcus Johansson, Blake Coleman, Jean-Sebastien Dea and Brian Boyle also scored. Kinkaid had his fifth career shutout.CANUCKS 4, LIGHTNING 1TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Elias Petterson and Brock Boeser scored 1:10 apart in the third period and Jake Virtanen and Markus Granlund added empty-net goals in Vancouver’s victory over Tampa Bay.Petterson scored his fourth goal in four games in his rookie season. Anders Nilsson made 33 saves in his season debut. Brayden Point scored the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche will be sorry not to see the Minnesota Wild on the schedule anymore during the regular season.MacKinnon scored his 33rd goal of the season, J.T. Compher had his first career two-goal game and Colorado dominated Minnesota on the scoreboard again during a 5-1 victory Tuesday night.Semyon Varlamov made 33 saves for the Avalanche. Nikita Zadorov and Tyson Jost also scored for Colorado, which has won the past three meetings this season by a combined tally of 19-4.”I don’t think there’s any love lost, but I guess we got hot on offense three games in a row http://www.pittsburghpenguinsteamshops.com/authentic-justin-schultz-jersey ,” MacKinnon said about the rivalry. ”At the end of the day, we just took two points. We’re not really worried about the dramatics of it. Obviously, it’s nice to come in here and win. We don’t do that very often.”The Avalanche have points in 10 of their past 11 games (6-1-4) and are three points behind the Wild for third place in the Central Division. They pulled into a tie with Dallas (82 points) for the first wild card in the Western Conference.”We know every night we’re talking about how big this game is, we’re going to go into the next game talking about how big that one is, and they just keep getting bigger and bigger here at the end of the season,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. ”So to be able to carve out points, especially on the road, it’s real important. Our guys are coming together as a group and we like what we’re seeing, so hopefully we can keep this thing going.”Mikko Koivu scored his 13th goal of the season for Minnesota, which has lost just three times at home in regulation since Nov. 14.Devan Dubnyk made 17 saves for the Wild in an intense game that featured several scrums after the whistle and both teams getting hit with matching roughing penalties – twice.”There’s a rivalry there for sure and they like to talk a lot from the bench, so it obviously gets guys going,” Dubnyk said. ”But that’s fine. If we need to take a couple runs at them, that’s fine.”MacKinnon was held scoreless in the first meeting between the teams when Minnesota won at home on Nov. 24 in a shootout. But the Avalanche also control their home ice and earned a pair of wins in Colorado by scoring seven goals in each game, the most recent a 7-1 victory on March 2.MacKinnon had three goals and five assists in the previous two meetings and gave the Avalanche a two-goal advantage on Tuesday by scoring just 11 seconds into the third period. MacKinnon picked up a loose puck and beat Koivu down the ice for an open shot and slid the puck under Dubnyk.Compher opened the scoring in the first with his first goal in 17 games and had one of three Colorado goals in the third, two that came on the power play.The Wild had 10 of the first 11 shots and outshot the Avalanche 34-22 in the game but couldn’t solve Varlamov.”We can be happy we don’t play them again,” Minnesota forward Jason Zucker said. ”But realistically, if it comes playoff time, we have to figure something out. We can’t just have a mental block against one team.”NOTES: Minnesota D Jared Spurgeon left early in the third period after crashing hard into the boards. Spurgeon’s legs were spread apart and split further after hitting the boards. He was helped off the ice and didn’t return. After the game, coach Bruce Boudreau would only say it wasn’t a knee or ankle injury. … Wild rookie D Nick Seeler returned to the lineup after missing three games with a right biceps strain. Gustav Olofsson was scratched. … Spencer Martin was recalled from the American Hockey League and dressed as Colorado’s backup goaltender, with Jonathan Bernier (head) scratched.UP NEXTAvalanche: At the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.Wild: At the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night.—
