Wild win opener with 4 goals in 5 minutes

Lightning 4, Sabres 1: Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the season, helping Tampa Bay defeat Buffalo.

“Everything we were doing so well in the first two periods and all of a sudden in the third we just stopped doing them”, Landeskog said.

It was a reversal of how the Avalanche played against Minnesota on Thursday.

After a slow start, the Avalanche erased that loss with their first win of the season.

“We wanted to show the crowd we’re ready to go”.

“I probably would’ve given him an average grade in Colorado”, Yeo said. “It was a big night for our guys”. In fact, between tonight and two weeks from now, the Wild will have played just two games at the X. MacKinnon then went out and earned his own goal against the Dallas Stars as well as two assists – Landeskog and Iginla again.

“We weren’t on for sure”, Yeo said. “We started playing east-west a little bit”. That goal was disputed by Colorado as it appeared that the Wild should have been called for icing, which would have negated the goal, but the referees did not see it that way, despite protests from the Avalanche bench. As he forced Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to make a play with the puck, he got a piece of it and a clean look at the net from the slot. “I’ve passed up shots a lot”. Landeskog scored at 8:58 to give the Avalanche a 5-3 advantage. Despite pulling their goalie late in the game and a few very good chances in the closing seconds, the Blues were unable to tie the game.

“We lost too many battles”.

“He deserved it”, Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “It’s really disappointing. It’s embarrassing”.

ABOUT THE WILD (1-0-0): Nino Niederreiter is expected to return to the lineup after exiting the series opener with a head injury.

The Colorado Avalanche have scored 10 goals in two games.

Coyle played right wing during the opener at Colorado.

The Wild broke a 1-1 tie in the second period with goals 21 seconds apart.

I’m delighted to report it was hard choosing who would get second star honors – a lot of players are already stepping up. Those are points to ponder for a team that’s got four days of rest coming then its first extended road trip of the season, with games at Arizona, Los Angeles and Anaheim coming next week. Of course, Flyers backup goalie Michal Neuvirth didn’t come out unscathed either as he surrendered three goals on 22 shots.

Other modern-day team rules include: 0-2 starts to the season are forbidden and a 15 percent power play won’t be tolerated.

NOTES: Avalanche D Brad Stuart and Brandon Gormley were healthy scratches for the second straight game. C Mikhail Grigorenko was also scratched…. C Mattias Janmark’s goal 1:39 into Thursday’s win was the second fastest goal by Stars rookie in franchise history.

– Cody Eakin recorded his 100th career point with a first period goal.