PITTSBURGH (AP) — Top draft pick Connor Bedard had an assist and dazzled occasionally with his skating in the his NHL debut, helping the Chicago Blackhawks beat Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old Bedard played over 21 minutes in the opener, often sharing the ice with Crosby, one of his idols. Bedard had five of Chicago's 35 shots.
Crosby began his 19th season by scoring his 551st goal, a shot into an open net off a pass from Jake Guentzel midway through the second period for a 2-0 lead.
The Blackhawks roared back behind a goal from Ryan Donato — with a secondary assist from Bedard — in the second period. Cole Guttman tied it midway through the third, and Jason Dickinson gave Chicago the lead with 4:31 remaining. Nick Foligno’s empty-netter with 1:33 to go sent most of the sellout crowd that came to watch one of the NHL’s brightest stars take on one of its newest.
Petr Mrazek stopped 38 shots for the Blackhawks.
Bryan Rust also scored for the Penguins.
LIGHTNING 5, PREDATORS 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jonas Johansson made 29 saves in his first start in place of the injured Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 in the NHL regular-season opener Tuesday night.
Johansson was signed to be Vasilevskiy’s backup. Vasilevskiy had back surgery two weeks ago and is expected to miss another six to eight weeks.
Brandon Hagel converted a penalty shot for Tampa Bay, Nicholas Paul had two power-play goals and ikita Kucherov also scored twice. Brayden Point had three assists, and captain Steven Stamkos, entering the final season of a $68 million, eight-year contract, added an assist.
Nashville’s Juuse Saros stopped 29 shots. Ryan O’Reilly, Juuso Parssinen and Tommy Novak had goals in Andrew Brunette’s debut as Predators coach.
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