When Sidney Crosby, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, left with an undisclosed injury late in the second period, the Pittsburgh Penguins were at a loss.
When Steven Stamkos, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 draft, got his first two NHL goals, the Tampa Bay Lightning were winners again.
Shane Doan scored twice and added an assist, and the Phoenix Coyotes beat Crosby’s Penguins 4-1 on Thursday night. Olli Jokinen also scored, Steven Reinprecht and Zbynek Michalek each had two assists and Ilya Bryzgalov made 27 saves for Phoenix.
“I had some discomfort,” said Crosby, who left the game with less than 5 minutes left in the second period. “I decided that in the third period, it didn’t seem like I could do much.”
What happened to Crosby is unclear. Replays showed Crosby skate to the Penguins bench, sit down with a grimace and try to collect himself. Per team policy, the Penguins did not disclose details of Crosby’s injury. Neither did Crosby.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what happened,” Crosby said. “I have to look at the tape. I haven’t seen anything yet.”
2003-04 season 3-3-2.
In other NHL games, it was the New York Rangers 3, Atlanta 2; Philadelphia 3, the New York Islanders 2 in overtime; Ottawa 2, Florida 1; Nashville 3, Edmonton 1; Montreal 2, Minnesota 1; Carolina 1, St. Louis 0; Calgary 3, Boston 2; Columbus 4, Colorado 2; San Jose 4, Detroit 2; and Vancouver 4, Los Angeles 0.
Stamkos had to wait 10 extra minutes to find out that he scored his first NHL goal in Tampa’s 5-2 win over Buffalo.
But what everybody already knew, the official scorers didn’t until the first-period break. Standing in front of Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller, Stamkos deftly deflected Vincent Lecavalier’s slap shot from the top of the right circle. Lecavalier was originally given the goal that staked Tampa Bay to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period.
During the intermission, the officials fixed the error.
“I knew it hit my stick right from the beginning, and Vinny knew that too, so it was just a matter of them correcting it,” Stamkos said. “I had some butterflies when they announced Vinny as the goal scorer, but he told the ref that I tipped it in. It was obviously a great feeling when they corrected it.”
Lecavalier even had enough foresight to make sure the No. 1 overall pick in June’s draft got the correct puck to commemorate the occasion.
The Lightning have won three of their past four after starting the season with five losses.
layed our best game,” Stamkos said. “We’ve been doing things the last few games that we weren’t doing in the beginning of the season.”
Canucks 4, Kings 0
Roberto Luongo recorded his 40th career shutout and visiting Vancouver got power-play goals from Daniel Sedin and Kyle Wellwood.
Coming off a hard-luck 1-0 loss to Boston on Tuesday night, Luongo made 28 saves and survived a penalty shot by Alexander Frolov to become the 28th goaltender in NHL history to record at least 40 shutouts in the regular season.
Mason Raymond and Taylor Pyatt also scored for the Canucks. Henrik Sedin had two assists.
Sharks 4, Red Wings 2
Jamie McGinn scored his first career goal during a three-goal outburst midway through the second period that helped host San Jose beat Detroit in coach Todd McLellan’s first game against his former team.
Patrick Marleau started the scoring spree for San Jose and Ryan Clowe capped it 3:25 later with a power-play goal that gave San Jose a 3-1 lead.
Canadiens 2, Wild 1
Francis Bouillon and Andrei Markov each scored for the visiting Canadiens, who killed off 10 Minnesota power plays. Alex Tanguay assisted on both Montreal goals and Carey Price made 28 saves for Montreal.
The Canadiens improved to 7-1-1 and won their second straight.
Blue Jackets 4, Avalanche 2
and Columbus got a rare win in Colorado.
Derick Brassard, Andrew Murray and Jan Hejda had a goal and Norrena earned his first win of the season for the Blue Jackets, who ended a three-game losing streak.
Paul Stastny and Tyler Arnason scored power-play goals for the Avalanche, who lost their second straight following a five-game winning streak.
Hurricanes 1, Blues 0
Carolina goalie Cam Ward stopped 19 shots and Tuomo Ruutu scored in the third period, helping the visiting Hurricanes.
On the power play, Ruutu deflected a slap shot by Eric Staal from just inside the left circle for the only goal at 9:41. The puck trickled through the pads of goalie Chris Mason, who was playing for the first time since he had an emergency appendectomy on Oct. 16.
Flames 3, Bruins 2
Dion Phaneuf scored the tying goal and then set up Mike Cammalleri’s go-ahead score for host Calgary’s fifth consecutive victory. Phaneuf’s power-play goal at 2:29 of the second period ended Tim Thomas’ shutout streak at 152 minutes and 14 seconds.
Flyers 3, Islanders 2, OT
Jeff Carter scored two goals, including the winner in overtime as host Philadelphia won its fourth straight.
-3-2 start.
Bill Guerin and Andy Hilbert scored for the Islanders, who have dropped five straight.
Rangers 3, Thrashers 2
Nikolai Zherdev had a goal and assist in the third period for host New York.
Zherdev gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal early in the third period and then helped set up Dan Girardi’s winner with 6:27 left to give New York its fourth straight win.
Markus Naslund also scored for the Rangers, who have won 10 of 13 (10-2-1).
Predators 3, Oilers 1
Shea Weber had a goal and assist and Patric Hornqvist and Martin Erat also scored for host Nashville, while goaltender Pekka Rinne won his first game of the season.
Sheldon Souray scored for Edmonton.
Senators 2, Panthers 1
Dany Heatley and Chris Kelly scored third-period goals to help visiting Ottawa win its second straight after a four-game skid.
Keith Ballard scored for Florida, which lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
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