Bruins beat Capitals 3-1 in season opener

WASHINGTON (AP) — David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists and Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves in the Boston Bruins’ 3-1 victory over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Pastrnak scored in the second period and Elias Lindholm added a goal at 7:41 of the third — just 38 seconds after Tom Wilson had tied it at 1 for Washington.

Morgan Geekie scored into an empty net with 57.1 seconds remaining.

The Bruins made Marco Sturm a winner in his first game as coach, killing off all five of Washington’s power plays. That included a two-man advantage that lasted nearly a minute in the second.

The 40-year-old Ovechkin is in the final year of his contract, and if this was his last season opener, at least one goal-scoring record will elude him. He has 13 goals in openers, but Michel Goulet and Dino Ciccarelli both had 14.

After breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record late last season, Ovechkin entered 2025-26 with 897 career goals. He had three shots on goal Wednesday but couldn’t beat Swayman. After dealing with a preseason injury last month, Ovechkin occasionally came off the ice during power plays instead of staying on with both units.

Swayman stopped Nic Dowd on a semi-breakaway in the second after a poor line change by Boston. Then Washington goalie Logan Thompson returned the favor with a save on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway. Pastrnak opened the scoring when his wrist shot from just inside the blue line made it through traffic and past Thompson.

Wilson tied it from just to the right of the slot, but after a holding penalty on Washington’s John Carlson, Lindholm lifted a backhand over Thompson to put Boston back ahead.

MAPLE LEAFS 5, CANADIENS 2

TORONTO (AP) — Morgan Rielly broke a tie at 9:02 of the third period and Toronto beat Montreal in the regular-season opener for both teams.

Matthew Knies chipped the puck to Rielly in the slot and he fired a wrist shot past goalie Sam Montembeault into the top right corner. Auston Matthews and William Nylander added empty-netters, with Nylander finishing with three points.

Bobby McMann and Calle Jarnkrok also scored for Toronto, and Anthony Stolarz stopped 29 shots. Rielly, John Tavares and Steven Lorentz also had two points.

Oliver Kapanen scored his first NHL goal for Montreal. Zac Boldujc added a goal, and Montembeault made 22 saves.

McMann scored for Toronto on a tip a minute into the game. Kapanen tied it on short-handed break at 5:39 of the first, beating Stolarz with a wrist shot to the far side.

Boldujc gave Montreal the lead at 1:30 of the second on a backhander off a rebound. Jarnkrok countered for Toronto at 5:40 of the period with a wrist shot while fighting off a defender.

KINGS 6, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 5, SO

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore scored during the shootout and Los Angeles spoiled Pavel Dorofeyev’s hat trick and Mitch Marner’s debut in a Vegas uniform with a win over the Golden Knights.

After squandering a pair of two-goal leads in the second period, and falling behind by two goals in the third, the Kings bounced back from Tuesday’s season-opening loss to Colorado.

Moore and Brandt Clarke scored late in the third to tie the game and force overtime after Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored to give Vegas a 5-3 lead.

Andrei Kuzmenko, Quinton Byfield and Joel Armia also scored in regulation, while Anton Forsberg stopped 30 shots for the Kings.

Dorofeyev notched the third hat trick of his career for Vegas and Adin Hill, who hasn’t beaten the Kings as a member of the Knights, made 21 saves.

The Kings didn’t show any signs of fatigue playing a back-to-back, as they opened a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals from Kuzmenko and Byfield.

Dorofeyev cut the lead in half just 2:10 into the second period when he fired a wrist shot past Forsberg and off the post. Armia put the Kings back in front by two goals later in the second when his blast from the right circle got past Hill’s far side.

Dorofeyev scored all of his goals in the second period.

FLAMES 4, OILERS 3, SO

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Nazem Kadri scored in the eighth round of a shootout to give Calgary a comeback victory over Edmonton, spoiling Oilers star Leon Draisaitl’s 400th NHL goal.

After Draisaitl and Morgan Frost each scored in the second round of the tiebreaker, the next 11 shooters failed before Kadri slipped a backhander past Stuart Skinner to end the season opener.

Playing his 791st regular-season game, Draisaitl gave the Oilers a 3-0 lead at 8:32 of the second period. He tapped in David Tomasek’s cross-crease feed, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also assisting.

Draisaitl also had an assist to push his points total to 958. The 29-year-old German star is the 111th player in NHL history to score 400 goals.

Matvei Gridin scored in his NHL debut to start the Calgary rally and Connor Zary and Blake Coleman added goals. Dustin Wolf made 32 saves.

Nugent-Hopkins and former Calgary forward Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Oilers, coming off consecutive Stanley Cup Finals losses to the Florida Panthers. Mangiapane played for Washington last season after seven years with the Flames.