Derrick Brassard had a goal and an assist, and newcomer Benoit Pouliot also scored to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday, giving Alain Vigneault his first win behind New York's bench.
"They both, I thought, played to their strength," Vigneault said of Brassard and Pouliot. "They moved the puck, they used their speed. They had some quality chances, they even had some real good chances on the power play. There seems to be a little chemistry there and hopefully it's going to continue to improve."
Brassard, acquired last season in the trade that sent Marian Gaborik to Columbus, broke a scoreless tie 1:10 into the second period when his wrist shot beat Flyers goalie Steve Mason.
Maxime Talbot and Sean Couturier scored for Philadelphia. Mason stopped 20 of 23 shots.
"Yeah, this was a good night. It's getting better the more you go along, but obviously it's difficult only playing a half game before this," Mason said. "But to get a full game in tonight and get back into the routine, it feels good."
Darroll Powe scored for New York and won five of eight faceoffs. Pouliot's goal, which proved to be the game-winner, came 5:30 into the third period. Rookie defenseman Dylan McIlrath picked up an assist.
Martin Biron stopped all six shots he faced for the Rangers. Cam Talbot relieved him and stopped 10 of 12 shots.
"My only sense of urgency tonight was showing a new coaching staff what I can do," Biron said.
Buffalo Sabres 3, Columbus Blue Jackets 1: Marcus Foligno scored twice, and Ryan Miller stopped 15 of 16 shots to help Buffalo beat Columbus at Nationwide Arena.
Foligno, who scored at 19:55 for the only goal of the first period, broke a 1-1 tie at 14:51 of the second. Each goal came at even strength.
Mikhail Grigorenko added an insurance goal for Buffalo at 9:23 of the third period, and Matt Hackett stopped all nine shots he faced after relieving Miller.
"That's where it starts, from the net out, and they had a strong performance tonight," Sabres coach Ron Rolston said of his goaltenders.
R.J. Umberger scored for the Blue Jackets, 4:29 into the second period. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 13 of 15 shots before being relieved by Mike McKenna, who made 12 saves.
Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards was not happy by his split-squad's effort. Columbus opens its regular season Oct. 4 against the Calgary Flames.
"One thing concerns me: Are we waiting for Oct. 4? We can't just turn it on then," he said.
Columbus Blue Jackets 3, Minnesota Wild 1: Ryan Johansen and Cam Atkinson each had a goal and an assist, and Jeremy Smith made 20 saves to lead Columbus past Minnesota at Xcel Energy Center.
Mark Letestu also scored for the Blue Jackets split squad, which built a 3-0 lead by the 7:53 mark of the second period.
Nino Niederreiter scored for the Wild, via the power play at 10:09 of the second. Yeo said Niederreiter was Minnesota's best forward Tuesday.
"What he did with the puck, he was strong tonight," Yeo said of Niederreiter, who was acquired from the New York Islanders at the NHL Draft in exchange for Cal Clutterbuck and a third-round pick.
Niklas Backstrom stopped seven of 10 shots for Minnesota before being relieved by Darcy Kuemper, who made seven saves.
Wild left wing Jason Zucker did not play the last two periods due to a tweaked groin, according to Yeo.
Boston Bruins 3, Washington Capitals 2 (SO): Carter Camper scored the game-winner in the eighth round of the shootout when Boston rallied from trailing 2-0 to defeat Washington at Baltimore Arena.
Tom Wilson opened the scoring for Washington with 2:42 remaining in the first period. Casey Wellman doubled the Capitals' lead with 1:11 left in the second, but Justin Florek got the Bruins on the scoreboard 27 seconds later to make it 2-1.
"The guys have had a lot of hockey in a short amount of time," Capitals coach Adam Oates said. "Tomorrow, they're getting their first day off, so I think the guys were a little tired today. They got through the game and we got to the shootout which was good, because the fans like that."
Chris Kelly tied the score for the Bruins 7:54 into the third period.
"Wasn't the prettiest, wasn't as entertaining as you probably would like it to be," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "But we found a way to win; comeback win, also."
Chicago Blackhawks 2, Detroit Red Wings 0: Corey Crawford stopped all 19 shots he faced, and Patrick Sharp and Ben Smith scored in the second period when Chicago blanked Detroit at United Center.
"He didn't get tested much," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Crawford. "But we got him a full game and he looked like he was tracking the puck well."
Jonas Gustavsson stopped 21 of 23 shots for the Red Wings. Jared Coreau relieved Gustavsson at the start of the third period and made 11 saves.
Sharp broke a scoreless tie at 16:37 of the second when he took a pass from Jeremy Morin and snapped a shot past Gustavsson. Smith scored 1:09 later.
"You play your first game of the year and suddenly you've got nine forwards there and they're out of gas fast," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I didn't think we had much of a push there tonight to tell you the truth. I thought we killed penalties good. Other than that, though, they were better than we were. They had the puck more. But it's a good evaluation. We had a lot of kids in the lineup here tonight."
Winnipeg Jets 3, Edmonton Oilers 2: Michael Frolik, Carl Klingberg and Anthony Peluso scored, and Ondrej Pavelec made 22 saves when Winnipeg edged Edmonton at MTS Centre.
Eric Tangradi had two assists for the Jets, who lost their first two preseason games over the weekend.
Mitchell Moroz and Philip Larsen scored late in the third period for the Oilers after they fell behind 3-0. Richard Bachman stopped 26 of 29 shots for Edmonton.
"We took our foot off the gas after we went up 3-0," Jets coach Claude Noel said. "We lost focus. But we saw some good things from some good players tonight."
Calgary Flames 5, New York Islanders 3: Dennis Wideman had two goals, Curtis Glencross had a goal and two assists, and TJ Galiardi had a goal and an assist to lead Calgary past New York in a split-squad game at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Lance Bouma also scored for the Flames, and former Islanders goalie Joey MacDonald stopped 18 of 21 shots.
Michael Grabner, Griffin Reinhart and Riley Wetmore scored for New York. Kevin Poulin started in goal and stopped 14 of 16 shots before being relieved by Anders Nilsson, who allowed two goals on 13 shots.
Calgary Flames 4, New York Islanders 2: Sean Monahan scored twice and Karri Ramo made 21 saves when the Flames completed their split-squad sweep of the Islanders with a victory in Regina, Saskatchewan.
"I'm feeling more comfortable," said Monahan, Calgary's first-round pick (No. 6) at this year's NHL Draft.
Matt Stajan and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary. John Tavares and Matt Moulson scored for the Islanders, who were outshot 38-23.
Evgeni Nabokov started in goal for New York and allowed two goals on 16 shots. He was replaced midway through by Ken Reiter.
"They played better than us tonight. They got more bodies and pucks to the net than we did," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said.
Los Angeles Kings 6, Anaheim Ducks 0: Jeff Carter scored twice and added an assist and Matt Frattin and Drew Doughty each had a goal and two assists as Los Angeles blanked Anaheim at Honda Center.
Jonathan Quick (12 saves) and Mathieu Garon (11 saves) combined for the shutout for the Kings. Quick played the first two periods.
"You've got to base it on the whole camp, not one period, not one shift or one game," Kings coach Darryl Sutter told the Los Angeles Times.
Anaheim's Viktor Fasth stopped 23 of 26 shots -– including a penalty shot against Kyle Clifford in the second period -- before being replaced by rookie John Gibson, who allowed three goals on eight shots.
Dustin Penner, who spent the past two seasons in Los Angeles, was reunited with Corey Perry and Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf for the first time since the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007.
"They played fairly well, and we played fairly poor," Penner said. "It's preseason, and it's a lot of guys' first game. But with that being said, it's not an excuse. It's a matter of fact. There were a lot of things we could've done more efficiently. Number one is compete. They had too many easy shots, and made it too hard on our goalies to make saves."