LAS VEGAS (AP) — Oscar Dansk earned his third win in three career games and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 on Friday night to extend the best start by an NHL expansion team.
The Golden Knights improved to 8-1-0. They’ve won five straight, matching the longest winning streak by a team in its inaugural season, joining the New York Rangers (1926-27) and Edmonton Oilers (1979-80), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Dansk stopped 32 shots in his second career start. The 23-year-old has been thrust into action after injuries to starter Marc-Andre Fleury and backup Malcolm Subban and has allowed three goals on 74 shots — a .960 save percentage.
James Neal got his seventh goal, and David Perron, Oscar Lindberg, Cody Eakin, Jonathan Marchessault, Erik Haula and William Carrier also scored. Nate Schmidt had two assists.
Semyon Varlamov allowed all seven goals on 21 shots.
PREDATORS 2, BLACKHAWKS 1
CHICAGO (AP) — Pekka Rinne made 43 saves and Nashville killed off six power plays against Chicago.
Calle Jarnkrok and Craig Smith scored in the second period for the Predators, who were coming off consecutive losses to Calgary and the New York Rangers. Nashville also lost 2-1 to Chicago in overtime during their first meeting of the season Oct. 14.
Corey Crawford stopped 28 shots for Chicago, but the Blackhawks lost for the fourth time in five games. Artem Anisimov scored in the first for the Blackhawks. John Hayden had a good look at a potential tying goal with 4:15 remaining, but Rinne was there.
BLUES 2, HURRICANES 1
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Dmitri Jaskin scored his first goal of the season and Brayden Schenn added the game-winner to give St. Louis a victory over Carolina.
It was the second straight win for the Blues, who are 3-0 at home and return there Saturday to play Columbus.
Jeff Skinner had the goal for the Hurricanes.
St. Louis goalie Carter Hutton (3-0) stopped 25 shots.
Cam Ward finished with 32 saves for Carolina.
DEVILS 5, SENATORS 4, SO
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Jesper Bratt and Drew Stafford scored in the shootout, and New Jersey beat Ottawa after blowing a two-goal lead in the final 1:15 of regulation.
Stafford kept the Devils in it by netting a backhand on their third shootout chance and then Bratt totally faked out Mike Condon on the fourth attempt for the game-winner. Tom Pyatt had scored for Ottawa on its second attempt.
Keith Kinkaid stopped Mike Hoffman on the Senators’ last try to give the Devils their seventh win in nine games.
Jimmy Hayes, Adam Henrique, Brian Gibbons and Damon Severson scored for New Jersey, which rallied from a 2-0 deficit with four straight goals.
Trailing 4-2 with less than two minutes to play, the Senators pulled their goaltender and tied the game on goals by Mark Stone and Christopher DiDomenico. It was DiDomenico’s first NHL goal. Hoffman and Johnny Oduya also scored for Ottawa, which lost on the road for the first time in four games.
BLUE JACKETS 2, JETS 1, OT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Josh Anderson scored 2:38 into overtime and Columbus rallied to beat Winnipeg.
Anderson beat backup goalie Steve Mason with a snap shot from the slot for his third goal of the season. Cam Atkinson scored for the Blue Jackets midway through the third period to tie it.
The winner by Anderson came shortly after Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky blocked and fell on a point-blank shot from Blake Wheeler. Bobrovsky made 29 saves.
Mason, who played in Columbus for the first five seasons of his career, stopped 35 shots as Winnipeg lost in overtime for the second consecutive night.
Brandon Tanev scored early for the Jets.
The Blue Jackets (7-3-0) are off to the best 10-game start in franchise history.
STARS 2, FLAMES 1
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Alexander Radulov scored a power-play goal in the third period to lead Dallas past Calgary.
Esa Lindell also scored for the Stars, who had lost two straight. It was the defenseman’s second goal in two games and third of the season.
Making just his second start in goal for the Stars, Kari Lehtonen stopped 29 shots and improved to 1-4. He lost his only other start of the season and also was tagged with two other losses in relief of Ben Bishop.
Johnny Gaudreau scored for the Flames, and Mike Smith had 22 saves.
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