Lehtonen gets second straight shutout
Kari Lehtonen had 34 saves in his second consecutive shutout, and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored a first-period goal as the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 on Monday night in Tampa, Fla.
Lehtonen, coming off a 6-0 win over Florida on Saturday, has five career shutouts. He has allowed two goals in three games this season.
Kozlov put Atlanta ahead 1-0 from the right circle at 12:26 of the first period. The goal came after Tampa Bay defenseman Paul Ranger mishandled the puck in the Lightning zone.
Marc Denis made 19 saves for Tampa Bay, which has lost two straight at home.
Lehtonen stopped three shots – including an in-close chance by Martin St. Louis – during a 5-on-3 power play that lasted two minutes in the second. He also made a strong glove save on Vinny Prospal’s shot right after the man advantage ended.
The Lightning outshot Atlanta 17-4 in the second and 28-10 overall through two periods.
Blue Jackets 5, Coyotes 1: At Columbus, Ohio, Nikolai Zherdev proved preseason workouts are overrated by scoring two goals and leading Columbus to victory over Phoenix.
Zherdev missed all of the preseason camp and the club’s first two games, arriving in Columbus on Sunday from his native Russia after ironing out visa problems.
He scored on the power play just 1:01 into the game and added another when he jammed in Rick Nash’s shot midway through the second period to make it 3-1.
Maple Leafs 2, Panthers 1 (SO): At Toronto, Mats Sundin and Darcy Tucker scored in a shootout and Toronto overcame 47 saves from Alex Auld in a victory over Florida.
Kyle Wellwood scored and Andrew Raycroft made 24 saves for the Maple Leafs, who lost in a shootout to Montreal on Saturday.
Sundin beat Auld in the tiebreaker with a high shot to the glove side. Todd Bertuzzi followed with a deke and a backhanded shot, but Raycroft made a glove save. Tucker followed with his goal that won it.
Sharks 4, Flames 1: At Calgary, Alberta, Vesa Toskala made 29 saves, and San Jose got goals from four scorers in the victory over Calgary that kept them unbeaten in the young season.
Coming off a shutout win Saturday over the New York Islanders with Evgeni Nabokov in net, San Jose coach Ron Wilson went back to opening night goaltender Toskala. The move paid off as Toskala’s only mistake came on Alex Tanguay’s first Flames goal with 3 minutes remaining in the game.
Ducks 2, Blues 0: At Anaheim, Calif., Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 34 shots in his 22nd career shutout and Chris Kunitz scored two power-play goals in Anaheim’s victory over St. Louis.
The Blues, who had the NHL’s worst record last season, have dropped a club-record 12 straight road games. They will take an 0-3 record into their home opener Thursday.