NEWARK, N.J. — Jack Hughes scored with 1:37 left in overtime to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
Hughes scored on a wrist shot with an assist from Jesper Bratt in New Jersey’s home opener.
Hughes, who led Team USA to the gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics last winter, led New Jersey with 77 points last season and ranked second with 27 goals despite missing 21 games with a hand injury. The Devils went 8-13-0 without Hughes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft.
His brother Luke tied the game at 2-all with a snapshot at 9:44 of the third period from Luke Evangelista.
Joseph Woll, who was acquired in an off-season trade with Toronto, stopped 41 shots for Philadelphia. Jake Allen made 23 saves for the Devils.
All four goals in regulation were scored by defencemen.
The Flyers, who suffered a 7-0 home loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, got goals from Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen.
NEW YORK — Igor Shesterkin became the first New York Rangers goalie to score when he lofted the puck the length of the ice into an empty net, capping a 5-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
A year after failing to score in their first three home games last season, the Rangers wasted little time preventing a repeat performance, getting a goal from Mika Zibanejad less than six minutes into their Madison Square Garden opener.
Pavel Dorofeyev and Eeli Tolvanen each scored his first goal with his new team, and top prospect-turned-important contributor Gabe Perreault deflected in a shot by No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox.
Shesterkin scored with 2:34 remaining, becoming the 18th goalie in NHL history with a goal. The first of his career was the 21st by a player at the position, counting the playoffs.
It was a far cry from the nightmare start at MSG in October 2025, when the Rangers went nearly 181 minutes before setting off the goal horn there. They became the first team in league history to get shut out in the first three home games of a season.
The crowd at this home opener didn’t even have much of a chance to get nervous. Coming off getting blanked 3-0 on the road Tuesday night at Boston, New York was the aggressor early. Drawing a penalty paved the way for Zibanejad to score on the power play.
The offensive outburst allowed the Rangers to put up four goals on 24 shots against two-time Vezina Trophy- and Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. In a matchup of two of the best at the position in the world, Shesterkin stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced, leading to chants of “Igor’s better!”
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Matthew Knies had two goals and an assist in his Columbus debut and the Blue Jackets beat Buffalo for their first season-opening victory in five years.
Cole Sillinger, Adam Fantilli, Sean Monahan and Mathieu Olivier also scored, and Charlie Coyle added three assists. Reigning Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski had two assists, and Jet Greaves stopped 23 shots.
Knies, acquired from Toronto on Monday, became the first Columbus player to score twice in his Blue Jackets debut. The three points tied the franchise record for a debut set by Artemi Panarin, who had three assists in 2017.
Mattias Samuelsson, Jack Quinn and Konsta Helenius scored for Buffalo, and Noah Ostlund and Owen Power each had two assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 16 shots.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nick Foligno and Blake Coleman scored first-period goals, and Minnesota beat Nashville in the season opener for both teams.
The Wild lost in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs last spring in five games to Colorado. After giving coach John Hynes a contract extension last month, Minnesota is targeting a third straight postseason berth.
Kirill Kaprizov also had a goal for Minnesota, which is playing 21 of its first 31 games on the road this season. Jesper Wallstedt made 19 saves.
Roman Josi scored for Nashville, which went 0 of 4 with the man advantage.
Filip Forsberg matched an NHL record with an assist on Josi’s goal, giving him at least a point in 11 straight season openers. Forsberg now has 15 points in 11 openers, tying the mark held by Viktor Kozlov (1997-98, 2008-09) and Vincent Lecavalier (2002-03 and 2013-14).
SALT LAKE CITY — Dylan Guenther scored two power-play goals, Karel Vejmelka made 15 saves and Utah opened the season with a win over Chicago.
Clayton Keller assisted on both power-play goals. Michael Carcone, Nick Schmaltz, Anders Lee and Daniil But also scored to help the Mammoth beat the Blackhawks in a season opener for the second time in three seasons.
Chicago generated only nine shots on goal over the first two periods. Arvid Soderblom had 26 saves for the Blackhawks. They lost their second straight after falling 5-2 at Vegas on Tuesday night.
Utah opened the scoring on Guenther’s first power play goal with 3:19 left in the first period. Carcone made it a two-goal lead for the Mammoth 40 seconds later, flicking a wrist shot over Soderblom’s elbow.
Schmaltz scored Utah’s third goal at the 9:46 of the second. He collected a puck that deflected off Soderblom’s skate as he dropped to his belly and tapped it in behind him at close range.
The Mammoth added two more goals later in the period. Lee tapped in the puck in traffic off a feed from Andrew Peeke with 6:54 left in the second. Guenther added his second power-play goal with 4:32 remaining in the period to put Utah up 5-0.
CALGARY, Alberta — Vince Dunn had a goal and two assists, Matty Beniers scored and had an assist, and Seattle beat Calgary in the season opener for both teams.
Jordan Eberle, Frederick Gaudreau, Chandler Stephenson and Kaapo Kakko also scored for Seattle, while Joey Daccord stopped 24 shots and had an assist. Jared McCann added three assists.
Calgary’s Ryan Strome scored and Dustin Wolf turned away 26 shots as the Flames dropped their final home opener at the Saddledome. The team will move to Scotia Place next season.
Seattle led 2-0 by the midway point of the first period. Eberle scored a power-play goal at 9:10 and Dunn struck 32 seconds later.
Gaudreau scored with 30 seconds remaining in the first period for a 3-0 lead after one.
Stephenson scored on a breakaway early in the third when Flames defenseman Zach Whitecloud clipped skates with his partner Yan Kuznetsov and fell. Beniers beat Wolf less than a minute later.
After Strome foiled Daccord’s shutout bid at 16:35 of the third period, Kakko countered 34 seconds later.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Luca Cagnoni rocketed a shot off goalie Akira Schmid at 3:14 of overtime and San Jose opened the season with a victory over Florida.
Florida overcame a three-goal deficit to force overtime, with Eetu Luostarinen scoring twice and Matthew Tkachuk pulling the Panthers even at 5:18 of the third. Luostarinen and Tkachuk scored in a 17-second span.
Mason Marchment opened the scoring for San Jose with 5:40 to go in the first period. Will Smith scored twice in the second period, the first short-handed and the second on a power play, both off assists from Macklin Celebrini. Smith and Celebrini each had three-point nights.
Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov made 23 saves.
Multiple scuffles broke out throughout the game, highlighted by Tkachuk and Jacob Trouba squaring off in the center of the rink.
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov left in the second period after his left knee appeared to buckle during a scrum with Sharks defender Darnell Nurse and forward Zack Ostapchuk along the boards.
Barkov immediately left the ice, throwing his glove on the ground as he headed into the tunnel.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Connor McDavid scored a goal and had four assists as Edmonton built a six-goal lead and held on for a victory over Vancouver.
Evan Bouchard had a goal and two assists for the Oilers to become the first defenseman in NHL history with eight points (four goals, four assists) in his first two games of the season. He had three goals and two assists in the Oilers’ season-opening 6-5 loss to the Canucks on Tuesday night.
Edmonton got two goals and an assist from Leon Draisaitl, and one of each from Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen. Owen Michaels scored his first NHL goal and Ryan Shea scored his first in an Oilers’ uniform.
Devon Levi made his first NHL start since Jan. 20, 2025 when he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres, and stopped 15 shots.
Marco Rossi scored twice for the Canucks and had an assist, while Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists. Paul Cotter, Brock Boeser, Arshdeep Bains, and Jamie Oleksiak each had a goal and an assist.
Kevin Lankinen made 13 saves before getting pulled midway through the second period. Leevi Merilainen — claimed off waivers on Friday — stopped 10 of the 11 shots he faced in relief.
The Oilers took an 8-2 lead on a Canucks power play midway through the second frame when McDavid and Kapanen scored short-handed breakaway goals 34 seconds apart.
But the Canucks scored four straight to pull within 8-6 on Pettersson’s power-play goal 7:37 into the third period.
Draisaitl ended the run with a power-play goal less than two minutes later.