NHL-Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League games

Oct 17 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League games. - - - - Stars 4, Sharks 3 (SO) The San Jose Sharks (6-0-1) have suffered their first loss of the NHL season, falling 4-3 to the Dallas Stars thanks to a shootout goal by rookie Alex Chiasson. Chiasson, Dallas' third shooter, beat San Jose goaltender Antti Niemi over his left shoulder for the lone goal of the shootout. Cody Eakin had a goal and an assist for Dallas, which also got two assists from Ray Whitney. - - - - Red Wings 4, Avalanche 2 The Colorado Avalanche (6-1) also went down for the first time this season as Johan Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk scored two goals each and the Detroit Red Wings claimed a 4-2 win. Daniel Alfredsson had three assists and Jonas Gustavsson made 38 saves for the Red Wings, who won their fourth straight. Erik Johnson and Gabriel Landeskog scored for Colorado, which lost for the first time after winning its first six games of the season. - - - - Islanders 3, Oilers 2 John Tavares' goal with just over a minute left in the second period snapped a tie and lifted the New York Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Nassau Coliseum. Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo also scored for the Islanders (3-2-2), who came back from a 2-1 deficit after one period to snap a three-game losing streak and beat the Oilers for the sixth straight time at home. Edmonton last won on Long Island on Dec. 14, 1999. The Islanders killed three power plays in a span of 8:48 before Tavares' winner. Taylor Hall set a team record held by Wayne Gretzky (nine seconds, 1981) by scoring twice in an eight-second span late in the first period for the Oilers (1-6-1), who lost their fifth in a row and tied the 1992-93 team for the fewest points through eight games in franchise history. - - - - Canucks 3, Sabres 0 The Vancouver Canucks continued their season-long seven-game road trip in fine fashion, cruising to a 3-0 victory over the struggling Buffalo Sabres. Chris Higgins, Brad Richardson and Ryan Stanton scored for the Canucks, who improved to 5-3. Things continue to go from bad to worse for the Sabres, who fell to 1-7-1. - - - - Penguins 4, Flyers 1 Jussi Jokinen and Chris Kunitz scored two and a half minutes apart in the second period, Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1. Sidney Crosby also scored a goal for the Penguins, who improved to 6-1. Crosby has points in his first seven games for the first time in his career. Evgeni Malkin added an empty-netter. Wayne Simmonds scored his first goal of the season for the struggling Flyers, who are off to the worst start in franchise history at 1-7. - - - Hurricanes 3, Maple Leafs 2 Ron Hainsey scored on a clearing shot from his own end for the go-ahead goal in the third period as the Carolina Hurricanes came back to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2. Ryan Murphy and Eric Staal added third-period goals for the Hurricanes (3-2-3), who overcame the Maple Leafs' two-goal lead to snap a winless string of four games that included two overtime losses. Joffrey Lupul and Josh Leivo scored for the Leafs (6-2-0). - - - - Bruins 3, Panthers 2 Florida goaltender Tim Thomas did not get the result he hoped for in his first game against his former team mates as Reilly Smith scored with 58.7 seconds left to lift the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 win over the host Panthers. Thomas spent parts of eight seasons with the Bruins and led Boston to the Stanley Cup in 2011, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP. The Bruins jumped on Thomas early, scoring twice in the first 13 minutes before he ended the night with 37 saves. - - - - Lightning 3, Wild 1 Steven Stamkos scored the go-ahead goal with 5:04 remaining in the third period to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild. Stamkos' fifth goal of the season came off of a beautiful cross-ice pass from defenseman Matthew Carle. Minnesota (3-3-2) had tied the score a few minutes earlier when Mikko Koivu went top shelf over Lightning goalie Ben Bishop on a feed from Nino Niederreiter. Tampa Bay (5-2-0) won its fifth game in six tries and needed a strong effort from Bishop to get it done. - - - - Canadiens 5, Blue Jackets 3 Tomas Plekanec scored twice in the third period to give the Montreal Canadiens a 5-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Plekanec, entering the Jackets' end with right-wing Brian Gionta and with a Columbus defenseman in front of him, shot from just inside the blue line, beating Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on a weak shot. Carey Price made 30 saves for Montreal (5-2-0), which extended its winning streak to four games. Bobrovsky stopped 35 shots for the Blue Jackets (2-4-0), who dropped their third straight. - - - - Senators 5, Devils 2 The Ottawa Senators lit up legendary goalie Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils in a 5-2 victory in their long awaited home opener. Ottawa scored goals three goals on just 11 shots in the first two periods. Erik Karlsson, Bobby Ryan and Zack Smith were the marksmen for the Senators (3-2-2), who were outshot 41-23 in the game by the winless Devils (0-4-3). - - - - Kings 2, Predators 1 (SO) Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick stopped 34 shots in regulation and overtime, then all three in the shootout as Los Angeles recorded a 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators. Pekka Rinne made 29 saves for the Predators (3-3-1) and stopped Los Angeles' first two tries in the shootout, but Anze Kopitar beat him to improve the Kings to 5-3-0 on the season. Each team scored a goal in a wildly entertaining opening period which saw both teams fire 15 shots at net. - - - - Blues 3, Blackhawks 2 (SO) T.J. Oshie's shootout goal propelled the St. Louis Blues to a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blues (5-1-0) defeated the Blackhawks (4-1-2) for the second time in just over a week. Oshie was the only player from either side to score in the shootout. Missing in their attempts for Chicago were Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp. (Editing by John O'Brien)