Around the NHL

Around the NHL

Sunday’s game

Canadiens 3, Senators 1

OTTAWA, ONTARIO

Tomas Plekanec scored twice in the first period and Mike Condon made 20 saves in his NHL debut to help the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 3-1 on Sunday night. Matt O’Connor (Youngstown Phantoms 2010-12) made 31 saves for Ottawa in his NHL debut. The 25-year-old Condon allowed only Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s short-handed goal midway through the second period in the Senators’ home opener. Torrey Mitchell added a goal for Montreal in the third period. Montreal improved to 3-0-0, while Ottawa dropped to 2-1-0. Plekanec opened the scoring at 9:41 of, beating O’Connor with a sharp angle shot. Plekanec added his third the season with 1:26 left, breaking in alone and beat O’Connor through the legs. Pageau pulled Ottawa with one in a 2-one-1 break with Curtis Lazar. Mitchell redirected P.K. Subban’s shot from just inside the blue line at 5:41 of the third, leaving O’Connor with little chance. Condon and O’Connor are the first goalies to make their first NHL starts in the same game since Oct. 14, 1967.

Late Saturday

Coyotes 2, Penguins 1

GLENDALE, ARIZ.

Mike Smith took a shot to the head in the first period. By the third period, he was doing the splits to turn away the Pittsburgh Penguins. Smith shook off a hard collision to stop 27 shots, Jordan Martinook scored his first career NHL goal and the Arizona Coyotes withstood a late flurry to beat the Penguins 2-1 on Saturday night. Marc-Andre Fleury nearly matched Smith, stopping 37 shots, and Phil Kessel scored his first goal with Pittsburgh. But just like they did in Thursday’s season opener, the Penguins had trouble getting pucks to go into the net. Pittsburgh has two goals on 55 shots through two games, both losses. “Right now it’s loose-puck battles and work ethic,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston said. “When you’re playing a game like this, you know that’s a pure staple of the game.” Tobias Rieder scored early after the Penguins knocked the puck into their own zone to negate an offside on Arizona. Anthony Duclair gathered the puck off the backboards and wrapped a pass around the goal to the slot, where Rieder one-timed a shot past Fleury. The Penguins answered 17 seconds later, when Kessel scooped up a neutral-zone turnover by Shane Doan and beat Smith to the stick side. Martinook put the Coyotes back up midway through the period, punching the puck past Fleury after a wild scramble in front that included five players hitting the ice at one point. “We were able to generate some good chances later on, but it just took too long to generate those chances,” Crosby said. Pittsburgh D Olli Maatta played in his 100th career NHL game. Arizona D Zbynek Michalek was out with an upper-body injury and is listed as day to day. Doan turned 39 on Saturday and passed Roman Hamrik for 34th on the NHL’s all-time games played list with No. 1,396. The Coyotes and Penguins meet again on Feb. 29 in Pittsburgh.

Associated Press