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Minnesota Wild Defeat St. Louis Blues 3-2; Start Season 2-0

– The Minnesota Wild got off to a slow start in Thursday night’s season opener at Colorado, letting the Avalanche take a 3-0 lead in the first period. The onslaught continued in the final period as goals by John Mitchell and Gabriel Landeskog spaced just 47 seconds apart gave the Avalanche a commanding 5-3 lead.

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This season started in promising fashion offensively, though they’ll likely need a better showing in their own zone Saturday night with the visiting St. Louis Blues targeting the team that sent them home in the first round in April. “Any time you can get all lines contributing, that’s always tougher to defend”.

Colorado’s next goal would come again on the power play. They got to pucks a little quicker than we did, they won the battles.

It would be called a “goal-scorer’s goal” if a goal-scorer had scored it. But it was Coyle, who hasn’t scored more than 15 goals in a season since 2010, when he played for the South Shore Kings.

Devan Dubnyk? They’ve already got a good idea about what they’re getting. “Our battles were just crap”, Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. “Bitter taste in our mouth tonight, losing; but, if we play that game most nights, we’re going to like our result”.

“I just want to be consistent”, Coyle said.

Red Wings 4, Hurricanes 3: Teemu Pulkkinen scored two goals in the third period, lifting Detroit past Carolina. He came down the slot, took a pass from defenseman Jason Demers and beat Varlamov with a backhander 20 seconds into the game.

That’s why the Stars were buoyed by the performance of offseason acquisition Antti Niemi, who not only turned away 37 shots but also picked up assists on each of the Stars’ first two goals.

Senators 5, Maple Leafs 4: Mike Hoffman had the decisive goal in the first shootout of the season, sending Ottawa to victory.

It was also a big night for 24-year-old Reilly Smith, who netted two goals in his Panthers debut.

After that, it was all Avs in the opening period as Iginla beat Dubnyk with a wrist shot, Johnson knocked in a shot off a slap shot and Landeskog added a third by tipping in the puck following a carom off the boards.

“We knew we definitely have enough skill and grit in this room to turn around a two-goal deficit”, Landeskog said.

Last season Vanek didn’t score his second goal until November 28. He scored his first just 1:39 into Thursday’s win over Pittsburgh.

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St. Louis star Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a power play early in the third period, after a double-minor penalty on Thomas Vanek for high-sticking, and Alexander Steen had the first goal for the Blues. “We were up three goals last game with about 10 minutes to go, and we were down two (tonight) with about half the game left, so there was a lot of hockey to be played”.

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