DETROIT — Left winger Justin Abdelkader and right winger Gustav Nyquist scored to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins in their season opener at Joe Louis Arena on Wednesday night.
Nyquist is a former University of Maine standout, as is Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, who made 16 saves in the victory.
Boston eliminated Detroit in five games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. The Bruins were playing their second game in two nights. They beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on Wednesday night in Boston’s season opener.
Right winger Johan Franzen had two assists for Detroit.
Center Patrice Bergeron scored for Boston while netminder Tuukka Rask made 22 saves in the loss.
Detroit scored twice in the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
Franzen put the Red Wings on the board 3:52 into the middle period when he tipped in defenseman Dan DeKeyser’s shot from the point.
Nyquist’s power-play goal with 5:14 remaining in the period gave Detroit the lead.
Standing at the bottom of the right circle, Nyquist put in winger Darren Helm’s pass across the front of the crease.
Bergeron was off for slashing.
The Bruins scored on their first shot of the game when Bergeron capitalized on a giveaway by Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson in his own zone. Bergeron beat Howard from the top of the left circle with 7:59 left in the first period.
Rask made a nice stop on a tip attempt from in front of the crease by center Luke Glendening about six minutes into the game.
NOTES: Detroit RW Andrej Nestrasil made his NHL debut on Thursday night. He made the team because C Pavel Datsyuk is on the injured list with a separated shoulder. …Boston RW Reilly Smith and Red Wings D Brendan Smith are brothers. … Bruins D Torey Krug is from the Detroit suburb of Livonia and played at Michigan State. … Boston coach Claude Julien played junior hockey with the Windsor Spitfires for three seasons from 1978-79 to 1980-81. Windsor is across the Detroit River from Detroit. … Winger Dan Cleary, C Stephen Weiss and D Brian Lashoff were healthy scratches for Detroit. … The Bruins’ healthy scratches were D Matt Bartkowski and RW Brian Ferlin.
Canadiens 2, Capitals 1 (SO)
Brendan Gallagher scored in fifth round of the shootout as visiting Montreal spoiled Washington’s season opener.
Tomas Plekanec netted the tying goal midway through the third period while Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais tallied in the bonus format to give the Canadiens their first 2-0 start since 2009-10. Dustin Tokarski made 29 saves and turned aside three shots in the shootout to improve to 3-0-0 lifetime with Montreal.
Rookie Andre Burakovsky scored in his NHL debut for the Capitals, who lost to the Canadiens for only the third time in 13 meetings. Braden Holtby stopped 23 shots to fall to 5-0-1 lifetime against Montreal.
Washingon recorded the first 13 shots of the contest but it was a turnover by Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban that led to the opening goal. Troy Brouwer snatched the puck from Subban and fed Burakovsky for a one-timer in the slot that beat Tokarski glove side at 6:43 of the first period.
Montreal appeared to notch the equalizer midway through the third on PA Parenteau’s shot from the slot, only to see the goal waved off when Rene Bourque made contact with Holtby. Undaunted, the Canadiens struck just over a minute later when Galchenyuk set up Plekanec from the right circle for his third goal of the season at 10:31.