Roundup: Blackhawks top Capitals in shootout

Saturday, 09.21.2013 / 2:12 AM

The Chicago Blackhawks let their reserves handle the scoring during regulation. When their game against the Washington Capitals got into a shootout, they brought out their star.

Jonathan Toews, one of the most successful shootout scorers in NHL history, had the only goal in the tiebreaker when the Blackhawks defeated the Capitals 5-4 Friday night at Verizon Center.

Toews, 27 for 55 in shootouts during the regular season, beat Washington rookie goalie David Leggio in the opening round of the tiebreaker. It was Toews' first preseason game after missing three with a lower-body injury.

Chicago rookie goalie Antti Raanta denied all three Washington attempts, ending the game by stopping Nicklas Backstrom's wrist shot.

Washington has gone to a shootout in all four of its preseason games, winning the first two. Chicago was coming off a 4-3 home shootout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday and left many of its regular at home.

"I thought we played a good game," coach Joel Quenneville said. "I thought coming in here with a lineup that might have looked like we were [up] against it, we found a way to get something out of it."

Backstrom opened the scoring 1:23 into the game, but Chicago tied it before intermission on a goal by Drew Olsen and went ahead 3:58 into the second on a goal by Jeremy Morin.

Tom Wilson, Washington's first-round pick in 2012, tied the game at 6:35; goals by Brad Winchester and Brandon Bollig in a span of 6:39 put Chicago ahead 4-2. Eric Fehr's goal late in the second got Washington within one, and Alex Ovechkin's power-play blast at 8:17 of the third made overtime necessary.

"There were a lot of positives about this game," Capitals coach Adam Oates said. "Obviously we want to win, but so many good things happened. There's a lot of positive reinforcement tomorrow at practice – video, all the little things we can teach. Tonight, [assistant coach] Calle [Johansson] and I were talking late in the game on the bench, that there were so many good things that we can talk about."

Montreal Canadiens 6, Carolina Hurricanes 0: The pro-Canadiens crowd in Quebec had plenty to cheer about; Montreal scored four times in the first period on the way to a rout.

Greg Pateryn's point shot and Alex Galchenyuk's rebound beat Cam Ward in a 26-second span to put Montreal ahead 2-0 before the game was four minutes old. David Desharnais and Michael Bournival also beat Ward in the opening period.

P.K. Subban added a power-play goal in the second period, and Max Pacioretty scored on a third-period penalty shot.

"The young players seized the opportunity to show what they can do," coach Michel Therrien said. "But it was the veterans who set the tone of the game and that's positive."

Peter Budaj and Dustin Tokarski combined for the shutout. The teams play again Saturday in Montreal, ending a stretch of four games in four nights for Carolina.

"Montreal came ready to play. They skate well, they worked hard," Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller said. "We just weren't ready to play a game at this time of year. We've got a game tomorrow night. There's going to be a sellout crowd and we've got to be ready to play."

Tampa Bay Lightning 4, St. Louis Blues 3: The Lightning made it three wins in three nights thanks to their biggest free-agent signing this summer, Valtteri Filppula, who assisted on three of their four goals at Scottrade Center.

Artem Sergeev, Brett Connolly, Ondrej Palat and Pierre-Cedric Labrie scored for the Lightning. Ben Bishop, who grew up in St. Louis, and Anders Lindback split time in goal for Tampa Bay. Bishop stopped 14 of 15 shots; Lindback made 13 saves on 15 shots.

"That was a big strong team who had a lot of NHL regulars in the lineup and our guys found a way, so we were proud of them," coach Jon Cooper said.

Corey Locke, Alexander Steen and T.J. Oshie scored for the Blues. Jaroslav Halak allowed four goals on 23 shots in his first preseason start.

"He's got to play. He's got to compete. He's got to get back into the rhythm," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said of Halak, who missed much of last season with injuries. "He's going to have to work at it."

Colorado Avalanche 4, Los Angeles Kings 3 (OT): Ryan O'Reilly's spectacular shorthanded goal 45 seconds into overtime capped Colorado's rally from a two-goal deficit in the third period at Pepsi Center.

O'Reilly spun around a defender near the net before beating Martin Jones with a backhander for the winner.

"That looked like a Peter [Forsberg] move for sure," coach Patrick Roy said.

Dwight King's power-play goal 38 seconds into the third period put L.A. up 3-1. But Steve Downie roofed a power-play goal at 3:20 and O'Reilly forced overtime by pumping his own rebound behind Martin Jones.

Colorado's Andre Benoit beat Ben Scrivens 26 seconds after the opening faceoff to give the Avalanche a quick lead. Justin Williams' power-play goal 25 seconds later got the Kings even, and Los Angeles went in front at 3:10 when Denver native Nick Shore one-timed Williams' pass behind Slava Voynov.

It was Colorado's first victory under Roy, who was hired as coach this summer.

"Our guys really want our fans to be proud of this team," Roy said.

The good news for the Kings was the return of defenseman Willie Mitchell, who played for the first time since June 11, 2012. He missed all of last season due to a knee injury.

"I thought he played really well…for a guy that hasn’t played for a while," coach Darryl Sutter said. "He was fine. He’s probably going to say he ran out of gas a little bit. It looked like there were times where he did. It’s a totally different situation when you start playing games."

Dallas Stars 4, Florida Panthers 1: Antoine Roussel scored twice as Dallas won in San Antonio, home of the Panthers' American Hockey League affiliate.

Roussel nearly had a hat trick, but officials ruled his third-period shot was deflected into the net by Colton Sceviour.

"I thought the energy was really good today," Roussel said. "I think everyone competed hard. We put pucks at the net, we dug in and we had a lot of success doing that."

Roussel scored the only goal of the first period, then made it 2-0 when he bounced Chris Mueller's centering pass behind goaltender Michael Houser.

"I thought we played well. I thought we competed well," said Stars coach Lindy Ruff, whose team improved to 2-0-1 in the preseason. "We were a little sloppy in the first period, didn't play well in our D zone, but after that I thought we played a great compete game. I thought we did a lot of good things. … I thought our young D was the key. I thought they had a strong night for us."

Defenseman Tom Gilbert scored Florida's goal, beating Dan Ellis midway through the third period to make it 3-1, but Mueller's goal with 5:50 remaining capped the scoring.

"We've been working on some system things and I saw a couple of snapshots of that tonight of some good things and some things that we need to continue to work on as a group," Florida coach Kevin Dineen said. "We looked a little disjointed as well. We're still in that process of evaluating. The turn of finding the chemistry on the team is going to have to happen pretty quick."

Anaheim Ducks 3, San Jose Sharks 2 (OT): Ben Lovejoy's slap shot from inside the blue line beat Antti Niemi 2:48 into overtime to give the Ducks a victory at SAP Center.

Corey Perry's goal at 16:01 of the second period had tied the game after Tyler Kennedy scored shorthanded at 8:15 to put the Sharks ahead 2-1. San Jose rookie Thomas Hertl opened the scoring at 14:42 of the opening period. Anaheim's Emerson Etem tied the game by beating Niemi 2:48 into the second.

"He can skate a hundred miles an hour and he's a big, strong man," coach Bruce Boudreau said of Etem. "His improvement from day one last year tto the first time he got called up, to when he got sent down, to the second time he got called up, to through the playoffs and then until now-- you can see improvement in him every day."

Etem didn't play the third period after suffering a lower-body injury in a collision with San Jose's Raffi Torres.

The Sharks are still getting their legs under them. They host the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday.

"It was what it was. It was a preseason game," Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle said. "I think there was definitely a lot of rust out there for a lot of guys. Some guys were a little better than that. Both the two new guys, Hertl and Kennedy, had some pretty good shifts out there. It was a little rusty, but we'll work and get better."

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