SCOREBOARD
Friday, Oct. 5
N.Y. Islanders at Buffalo (7:30 p.m. EDT). The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Sabres eliminated the Islanders in five games during the first round of last year’s playoffs.
STARS
Thursday
-Vincent Lecavalier, Lightning, scored twice, including a tiebreaking goal with 3:52 left in the third, leading Tampa Bay to a 3-1 win over New Jersey.
-Daniel Alfredsson, Senators, scored twice, including the winner on a power play with 4:59 remaining, to lift Ottawa to a 3-2 victory over Toronto.
-Jason Arnott and Chris Mason, Predators. Arnott scored two goals and Mason made 35 saves to lead Nashville to a season-opening 4-0 win over Colorado.
-Daniel Briere, Flyers, scored two goals to help Philadelphia beat Calgary 3-2.
HOME SWEAT HOME
Edmonton is undefeated in its last eight home openers (six wins and two ties) after a 3-2 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
DEBUTS
Vincent Lecavalier scored twice, including a tiebreaking goal with 3:52 left in the third, spoiling Brent Sutter’s debut as Devils coach and leading Tampa Bay to a 3-1 win on Thursday night. … Daniel Briere scored his first two goals in a Philadelphia uniform to help the Flyers beat Calgary 3-2 on Thursday night, spoiling Mike Keenan’s regular-season debut behind the Flames’ bench.
YOUNG GUN
Rookie Daniel Winnik’s first NHL goal stood as the winner in the Phoenix Coyotes’ 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues in the teams’ season opener on Thursday night. Winnik converted a centering pass from Martin Hanzal at 7:30 of the third period to extend the Coyotes’ lead to 3-0, just 12 seconds after Mike York scored Phoenix’s second goal.
PROMOTED
The Carolina Hurricanes promoted Ron Francis, already the team’s director of player development, to assistant general manager on Thursday. He replaces Jason Karmanos, the 33-year-old son of team owner Peter Karmanos Jr., who resigned last week for personal reasons.
SPEAKING
“We got our goals. We got a goal on the power play. We got goals in transition. We got mucking goals. We got goals because we had traffic in front of the net. That’s how we are going to have to play if we are going to be successful.” – Nashville coach Barry Trotz after the Predators’ 4-0 win over the Avalanche on Thursday night.