PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh’s Arturs Silovs stopped 25 shots to spoil the history-making debut of Florida counterpart Cooper Black as the Penguins beat the Panthers 4-0 on Thursday.
Black, who at 6-foot-9 became the tallest goalie ever to appear in an NHL regular season game, made 18 saves but it wasn’t enough to stop the Panthers from dropping their second game in as many nights.
Nick Robertson scored twice for Pittsburgh. Hendrix Lapierre and Evgeni Malkin both finished with a goal and an assist as the Penguins shook off a miserable Western Conference road trip in which they were badly outplayed in losses to Chicago, Colorado, Vegas and Utah.
The trip ended with 19-year-old forward Ben Kindel collapsing on Tuesday during the flight back to Pittsburgh. Kindel spent the night in a Salt Lake City hospital for observation and returned to the Penguins’ facility on Thursday. The team placed him on injured reserve but is hopeful may be able to return to practice as early as next week.
Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse shuffled his lines in hopes of a spark, and the Penguins responded by solving the towering Black, a 25-year-old from Michigan, three times.
Black, called up from Florida’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte recently after Jacob Markstrom sustained a shoulder injury, was sharp early as the Panthers struggled to find their legs a night after an emotionally charged loss in Ottawa.
DEVILS 4, DUCKS 1
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Arseny Gritsyuk and Nico Hischier scored first-period goals, Nico Daws made 16 saves and New Jersey beat Anaheim.
Anthony Mantha restored the two-goal lead with 6:33 left in the third, and Jack Hughes added an empty-netter with 6.1 seconds remaining. New Jersey won its second straight to improve to 6-4-0, while Anaheim dropped its fifth in a row to fall to 4-6-0.
Gritsyuk and Hischier each scored their fifth goal of the season, with Jesper Bratt assisting on both scores. Hughes assisted on Gritsyuk’s goal.
Tim Washe scored for Anaheim on a tip at 8:20 of the third period. Ville Husso made 25 saves for the Ducks.
Gritsyuk opened the scoring at 4:38 of the first, connecting from close range off Bratt’s centering pass. Hischier scored off a rebound on a power play with 41 seconds left in the period.
BRUINS 6, PREDATORS 0
BOSTON (AP) — Michael DiPietro made 28 saves for his first career shutout, David Pastrnak had two goals and two assists, and Boston cruised to a victory over Nashville.
Charlie McAvoy had a career-high four assists for Boston, and Casey Mittelstadt, Elias Lindholm, JJ Peterka and Mark Kastelic also scored.
Pastrnak leads the Bruins in goals (six) and assists (10). Boston improved to 6-0-1 in its last seven games, with the only loss coming Tuesday in overtime at Dallas to conclude a four-game trip.
Justus Annunen stopped 25 shots in first start for Nashville since last season. The Predators have lost four of five.
The Bruins went ahead 3:49 into the game when Pastrnak sent a cross-ice pass to Mittelstadt, who fired it past Annunen’s right shoulder.
Lindholm made it 2-0 on the power play later in the first. Pastrnak scored midway through the second when he deflected McAvoy’s shot past Annunen, and the Bruins captain assisted on Peterka’s goal late in the period.
Pastrnak capped the scoring with 5 minutes remaining and became the eighth player in Bruins history with 20 career four-point games.
SHARKS 6, SENATORS 2
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Colin Graf had a goal and an assist, Yaroslav Askarov stopped 39 shots and San Jose beat Ottawa for its first regulation victory of the season.
Nolan Allan, Tyler Toffoli, Jacob Trouba, Zack Ostapchuk and Ivar Stenberg also scored for the Sharks (6-4-1).
Tim Stutzle and Jordan Spence scored for Ottawa (7-4-0). Samuel Ersson made 23 saves.
Ottawa placed goalie Linus Ullmark on injured reserve Thursday after he suffered a lower-body injury a night earlier.
Spence scored at 6:24 of the third period to make it a two-goal game.
The Senators pulled Ersson while on the power play with under four minutes remaining, but Ostapchuk took advantage of a giveaway and scored an empty-net goal.
Stenberg added a second empty-netter to round out the scoring.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, RANGERS 4
TORONTO (AP) — Troy Stecher scored with 26.3 seconds left in regulation and Toronto outlasted the New York Rangers for its third straight victory.
Brandon Duhaime had a goal and two assists, and Teddy Blueger, Kirill Marchenko and Easton Cowan also scored for Toronto (6-4-2).
Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves. Zack MacEwen added two assists. Blueger also had an assist for a two-point night.
Mika Zibanejad, with a goal and an assist, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Tye Kartye and Alexis Lafreniere replied for New York (7-4-1), which got 31 stops from Dylan Garand. Adam Fox had four assists.
Stecher’s winner came on a delayed penalty after he took a pass from Morgan Rielly and ripped a high shot.
Bobrovsky tied former Rangers star Henrik Lundqvist for the most wins by a non-North American goalie with 459.
KINGS 3, ISLANDERS 2, OT
NEW YORK (AP) — Artemi Panarin had two goals, Brandt Clarke scored in overtime and Los Angeles won a second consecutive game, beating the New York Islanders.
The Kings have back-to-back victories after losing their first six games. They were the final NHL team without a win before defeating Washington on Tuesday night.
LA was outplayed for much of the Islanders game and outshot 43-26. Panarin beat rusty backup Semyon Varlamov glove side twice, and Darcy Kuemper kept making stops even as his rebound control was lacking, finishing with 41 saves.
Kuemper cracked for the first time with just under six minutes left in the second period when rookie Victor Eklund’s shot squeezed through on a power play. Islanders face of the franchise Matthew Schaefer wired a wrist shot by Kuemper 7:06 into the third.
Clarke scored the winner with 2:18 left in 3-on-3 OT after he and his teammates possessed the puck for several shifts in a row.
BLUES 6, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Justin Barron had a goal and three assists, Dylan Holloway had two goals and an assist and St. Louis beat Vegas.
Jimmy Snuggerud had a goal and an assist and Pavel Buchnevich and Mason McTavish also scored for the Blues, who improved to 3-0-1 at Enterprise Center this season. Joel Hofer made 27 saves.
Brett Howden and Jack Eichel scored and Aidan Hill made 25 saves for the Golden Knights, who dropped their second straight game.
Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner didn’t play because of what the club called “a family matter.” His wife, Stephanie, was due to give birth to their second child, someone with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the specific reason wasn’t announced.
Marner has a seven-game point streak and has recorded 12 points in 11 games for the season. Alexander Holtz replaced him in the lineup.
STARS 3, JETS 2, OT
DALLAS (AP) — Roope Hintz scored on a breakaway 3:47 into overtime after his game-tying goal with 2 minutes left in regulation and Dallas beat Winnipeg.
Wyatt Johnston scored his first goal of the season for Dallas, after 45 last season, and had an assist. Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen each had two assists.
Rantanen, who two nights earlier had a hat trick for every Stars goal in a 3-2 overtime win against Boston, passed to Hintz from behind the net for the late regulation goal.
Hintz had been denied a tying goal at the end of the second period after he got his stick on a puck from the side of the net behind Stuart Skinner, who made an incredible save reaching back with his glove to smother the rolling puck before it could cross the line.
Skinner finished with 35 saves.
Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor scored goals less than 2 minutes apart in the second period for the Jets, who have lost four one-goal games in a row.