The Connor Hellebuyck era began with a win for the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, as the recently acquired star goaltender stopped 17 shots in a 5-1 victory over the host Dallas Stars.
Given his first start four days after being acquired from the Winnipeg Jets in a blockbuster trade, the three-time Vezina Trophy winner made his season debut after last playing on April 13.
New Jersey extended its winning streak to four games while snapping Dallas’ five-game winning run.
Captain Nico Hischier scored twice for New Jersey, while Luke Hughes and Jack Hughes each had a goal and an assist. Jesper Boqvist also tallied. Justin Hryckowian produced Dallas’ lone goal, and Casey DeSmith stopped 22 of 27 shots.
Canucks 6, Ducks 5 (OT)
Jonathan Lekkerimaki scored twice in the final three minutes of regulation and Filip Hronek scored on a two-man advantage with 10.4 seconds left in overtime as visiting Vancouver beat Anaheim to snap a 10-game losing streak (0-9-1).
Liam Ohgren, Brock Boeser and Jamie Oleksiak also scored for the Canucks, who trailed 5-2 with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation. Boeser and Elias Pettersson each had two assists, and Leevi Merilainen made 18 saves.
A.J. Greer scored twice and Jackson LaCombe had three assists as the Ducks lost for the sixth time in seven games. Leo Carlsson and Jeff Malott each had a goal and an assist while Beckett Sennecke also scored for Anaheim. Lukas Dostal stopped 27 shots.
Islanders 4, Predators 3 (SO)
New York surrendered a three-goal, second-period lead but went on to win thanks to shootout goals from Kyle Palmieri and Bo Horvat, beating host Nashville.
Anthony Duclair, Brayden Schenn and Bo Horvat scored in regulation for the Islanders. Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves, earning his first NHL victory since November 2024. He also poke-checked the puck away from Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly to open the shootout.
Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Predators, who earned at least a point in their third straight game (1-0-2). Alexander Kerfoot and O’Reilly also scored, and Juuse Saros stopped 25 shots.
Blue Jackets 4, Flyers 3 (OT)
Kent Johnson scored his second goal of the night 2:22 into overtime to lift visiting Columbus over Philadelphia.
Adam Fantilli and Denton Mateychuk scored the other goals for the Blue Jackets, who squandered a 3-0 lead before escaping with two points. Cam Talbot made 28 saves.
Jamie Drysdale tied the game with 11 seconds left in regulation, after Noah Cates and Trevor Zegras supplied the Flyers’ initial goals. Dan Vladar turned aside 11 shots.
Panthers 5, Jets 1
Carter Verhaeghe scored two power-play goals and Matthew Tkachuk had four assists to lead the visiting Florida past Winnipeg.
Brady Tkachuk contributed a goal and two assists, Niko Mikkola had a goal and an assist and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who went 3-for-5 with the man advantage. Seth Jones collected three assists and Akira Schmid made 24 saves.
Adam Lowry got the lone goal for the Jets, who lost their sixth in a row (0-4-2). Clay Stevenson stopped 19 shots.
Blackhawks 2, Kings 1
Wyatt Kaiser and Roman Kantserov scored and Spencer Knight made 25 saves as host Chicago defeated Los Angeles to stop a three-game losing streak. The Kings ended a 3-2-0 road trip.
Kaiser tallied his first goal of the season at 7:17 of the third period to break a 1-1 tie.
Anton Forsberg made 25 saves for the Kings, who tallied a season-best six goals in a Monday victory against the New York Rangers. Samuel Helenius opened the scoring on Tuesday with his first goal of the season.
Hurricanes 2, Bruins 1
Sebastian Aho scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov extended his hot start as Carolina beat Boston.
In a matchup of Eastern Conference division leaders, Jackson Blake also scored for the Hurricanes, who returned from a 3-1-1 road trip to play their first home game in two weeks.
Kochetkov made 14 saves to improve to 8-0-0, tying the best start to a season in franchise history. The Bruins, who had won their previous two games and seven of their past eight, got a power-play goal from Pavel Zacha and 28 saves from Jeremy Swayman.
Canadiens 2, Blues 0
Jacob Fowler made a career-high 46 saves for the shutout as Montreal won at St. Louis. Fowler has two shutouts over the course of a six-game winning streak plus a .942 save percentage in his seven total games this season.
The Canadiens are on a three-game winning streak, all on the road, and are on a five-game (4-0-1) points streak.
Zack Bolduc and Florian Xhekaj scored for the Canadiens, who were outshot 46-20, including 24-3 in the third period. Blues goalie
Jordan Binnington registered 18 saves.
Wild 3, Mammoth 1
Kirill Kaprizov scored his NHL-leading 14th goal and added an assist as Minnesota beat Utah in Salt Lake City.
Kaprizov scored for the third straight game, and Joel Eriksson Ek and Maxim Shabanov also tallied for the Central Division leaders, who won their third straight game to finish a 3-1-1 road trip. Quinn Hughes had two assists, and Jesper Wallstedt made 26 saves.
Logan Cooley scored for the Mammoth, who have lost three of their past five games. Karel Vejmelka made 27 saves.
Golden Knights 4, Senators 1
Raphael Lavoie’s first NHL goal was the go-ahead tally midway through the third period as Vegas earned a victory over Ottawa in Las Vegas.
Braeden Bowman, William Karlsson and Jack Eichel also scored goals for Vegas, which snapped a season-high three-game losing streak (0-2-1). Adin Hill stopped 25 shots for the win.
Shane Pinto scored a goal and Jonas Johansson saved 25 of 27 shots for Ottawa, which was playing the first game of a five-game road trip. The Senators have alternated wins and losses for eight games.
Sabres 2, Sharks 0
Colten Ellis made 23 saves for Buffalo to earn his second career shutout in a win against host San Jose.
It was Ellis’ first appearance since getting pulled early in the second period on Oct. 12 against the Florida Panthers, when he gave up two goals on nine shots. Olen Zellweger and Zach Benson scored for the Sabres, who snapped a three-game skid (0-1-2). Owen Power assisted on both tallies.
Yaroslav Askarov made 38 saves for the Sharks, who have lost two in a row.