TORONTO (AP) — William Nylander broke a tie at 1:06 of the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 Wednesday night in the opener for both teams.
Toronto won in front of over 18,000 masked and fully vaccinated fans in Scotiabank Arena’s first regular-season crowd since March 10, 2020. Jack Campbell made 31 saves for Toronto, allowing only Jonathan Drouin’s first-period goal.
Pierre Engvall tied it on a power play midway through the second. Toronto star Auston Matthews, the NHL leader with 41 goals in 52 games last season, sat out because of a wrist injury that hasn’t fully healed from surgery.
In other ice action:
— Bowen Byram scored his first NHL goal and added an assist to lead the short-handed Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and an assist for Colorado, which played without star center Nathan MacKinnon and head coach Jared Bednar. Both are in the COVID-19 protocol and away from the team.
— Kyle Turris scored the shootout winner and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Wednesday night in the season opener for both teams. Jesse Puljujarvi and Zach Hyman scored in regulation for the Oilers, who squandered a late lead. Edmonton also got a pair of assists from Connor McDavid. Mike Smith finished with 36 saves. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Quinn Hughes scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko made 32 saves.
— Mason McTavish became the youngest player in Anaheim history to score a goal as the Ducks opened the season with a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. The 18-year-old McTavish — the third overall pick in this year’s NHL draft — put in a loose puck 13:20 into the first period to give Anaheim a 2-0 lead. Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made a pad save on a shot by Isac Lundestrom, but McTavish gathered in the rebound. Adam Henrique, Kevin Shattenkirk and Rickard Rakell also scored for Anaheim.
— The Washington Capitals made a season-opening 5-1 victory against the division-rival New York Rangers memorable Wednesday night for Alex Ovechkin’s 731st and 732nd goals and Hendrix Lapierre’s first. Ovechkin scored twice to pass Marcel Dionne for sole possession of fifth place on the NHL goals list, putting him a couple of steps closer to Wayne Gretzky’s record that had long seemed unbreakable. Ovechkin, one game into a new five-year contract to chase the mark, needs 163 goals to pass Gretzky.
