Opening Night: Oilers Thumped, Flames Win, Leafs Blanked, Dub Round-Up

JETS 6 OILERS 0

It was a familiar start to the NHL season for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers were trounced 6-0 in their home-opener Wednesday by the Winnipeg Jets, after starting the 2023-2024 campaign in similar fashion when they were stomped 8-1 by the Vancouver Canucks.

“It sucks, especially when you do it two years in a row,” Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner said. 

“You just don’t want to believe that you are going to have a crappy start again.”

Skinner made his first opening-night start in his three seasons in Edmonton, and it was one he will likely want to forget. 

He allowed five goals on 13 shots and was pulled just past the mid-mark in favour of backup netminder Calvin Pickard.

Mason Appleton had a goal and two assists, Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele each had a goal and an assist and Rasmus Kupari, Dylan Samberg and Kyle Connor also scored.

FLAMES 6 CANUCKS 5 OT

The Calgary Flames were already preaching the importance of resilience a single game into the NHL season. 

The bend-but-don’t-break mentality paid off Wednesday when the Flames rallied from an early three-goal deficit and edged the Vancouver Canucks 6-5 in overtime. 

“That’s kind of the mentality we have to have all year, is we’re going to go down a bit, or we’re going to get knocked down, but we’re always going to keep coming back and, just building shift by shift, brick by brick,” said centre Connor Zary. 

Zary scored the game-winner 92 seconds into overtime. 

The first period saw 30 minutes worth of penalties handed out, including 19 to the Flames. 

Head coach Ryan Huska told his players after the first period to calm down.

“I felt like we played a panic period. We didn’t have a lot of composure, and it resulted in all the power plays,” he said. “But I’m really happy that they stuck with it and didn’t go away, and we found a way to get a couple points.”

Zary, Mantha, defenceman Rasmus Andersson and centre Martin Pospisil each scored and had an assist for Calgary.

Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored, while Nazem Kadri added a pair of assists.

CANADIENS 1 MAPLE LEAFS 0

MONTREAL (AP) — Sam Montembeault made 48 saves, Cole Caufield scored on a first-period power play and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0 on Wednesday night in the season opener for both teams.

Caufield scored at 7:48 of the opening period, finishing off a tic-tac-toe play with Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach. The Canadiens were 1 for 5 on the power play after going 0 for 30 in the preseason.

Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves for Toronto after expected starter Joseph Woll was held out of the lineup. Coach Craig Berube said Woll had “lower-body tightness.”

SILVERTIPS 5 PATS 1

Defenceman Landon DuPont’s goal and two assists helped the Everett Silvertips to a 5-1 win over the host Regina Pats in the Western Hockey League on Wednesday.

The 15-year-old DuPont was just the second player the WHLgranted exceptional player status to behind Connor Bedard in 2020.

Caine Wilke, Jesse Heslop, Julius Miettinen and Carter Bear also scored for Everett. Silvertips goalie Jesse Sanche made 26 saves for the win.

Anthony Wilson scored the lone goal for Regina with goalie Ewan Huet stopping 28 shots.

BRONCOS 4 HITMEN 1

SWIFT CURRENT, Sask.— Brady Birnie led the Broncos with a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over Calgary.

Peyton Kettles, Clarke Caswell and Luke Mistelbacher also scored and goaltender Reid Dyck stopped 30 of 31 shots in Swift Current’s victory.

Brandon Gorzynski scored once for Calgary, which got 12 saves from Hitmen goaltender Ethan Buenaventura.

TIGERS 3 REBELS 0

MEDICINE HAT, Alta.— Tigers goalie Harrison Meneghin posted a 24-save shutout in Medicine Hat’s 3-0 victory over visiting Red Deer.

Andrew Basha, Markus Ruck and Matt Paranych each scored goals for the Tigers.

Rebels goalie Chase Wutzke stopped 27 of 29 shots in the loss.

CHIEFS 2 RAIDERS 0

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Dawson Cowan’s 27-save shutout led Spokane to a 2-0 blanking of the host Raiders.

Owen Martin and Brayden Crampton each scored for Spokane.

Raiders goalie Max Hildebrand stopped 44 of 45 shots.

WINTERHAWKS 5 COUGARS 4 (SO)

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — Portland’s Diego Buttazzoni was the only player to score in a shootout in a 5-4 win over Prince George.

Buttazzoni also scored in regulation for the Winterhawks, who trailed 4-0 after two periods and also got goals from Hudson Darby, Tyson Jugnauth and Kyle Chyzowski. 

Goalie Luke Brunen made 27 saves in regulation and overtime for Portland. Ondrej Stebetak drew in for the shootout and three Cougars were unable to score on him.

Terik Parascak scored twice and Evan Groening and Koehn Ziemmer each had goals for Prince George. Cougars goalie Joshua Ravensbergen had 24 saves.

(Canadian Press)