Ottawa Makes History With 1st Shootout Win

Thursday, October 6th 2005, 8:53 am

By: News On 6

The Ottawa Senators will always be first on the list of teams to win NHL shootouts. Daniel Alfredsson, who tied the game with two goals in the final six minutes of regulation, and Dany Heatley scored in the inaugural shootout, giving the Senators a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It was the only game in which the league's new rule that eliminates ties was needed as all 30 teams played Wednesday night in the NHL's return after missing the 2004-05 season because of the lockout.

The shootout, which follows a five-minute overtime and in which at least one team must have three participants, gives two points to the winner and one to the loser.

``It is exciting. It's nice to have a winner,'' Alfredsson said. ``Both teams battled hard for 65 minutes. I think it's right that the losing team still gets a point.''

Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn didn't sound as enthusiastic.

``I'm not one of the ones that like the game being settled this way,'' Quinn said.

In other games Wednesday, it was: Buffalo 6, the New York Islanders 4; Montreal 2, Boston 1; Washington 3, Columbus 2; Florida 2, Atlanta 0; the New York Rangers 5, Philadelphia 3; Detroit 5, St. Louis 1; Tampa Bay 5, Carolina 2; New Jersey 5, Pittsburgh 1; Minnesota 6, Calgary 3; Nashville 3, San Jose 2; Anaheim 5, Chicago 3; Dallas 5, Los Angeles 4; Edmonton 4, Colorado 3; and Vancouver 3, Phoenix 2.

Alfredsson tied it at 1 with 5:48 left. Eric Lindros, playing his first game with his hometown team, gave Toronto a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal with 1:31 remaining.

Twenty-nine seconds later, Alfredsson tied it again.

Alfredsson scored on Ottawa's first attempt under the new shootout format. Toronto's Jason Allison and Lindros failed on their attempts against Dominik Hasek, but Dany Heatley scored on Ottawa's third chance, clinching the victory.

``I like the shootout. I think it's fun for everybody,'' Heatley said. ``We battled hard the last 10 minutes and Alfie came up big.''

Toronto captain Mats Sundin was struck in the face by a puck seven minutes into the first period. He was taken to a hospital and released.

``The eyeball itself is fine. There's damage to the surrounding areas, but they weren't able to report if there is serious damage,'' Quinn said. ``I don't know what the time frame is for him to play again. I would bet there is significant swelling.''

Hasek, 40, played his first game for Ottawa and his first for anybody since December 2003. He finished with 23 saves.

Sabres 6, Islanders 4

Daniel Briere and Maxim Afinogenov both had two goals for Buffalo.

Alexei Zhitnik, playing against his former team, scored for the visiting Islanders, who are 1-6-3 in their last 10 openers.

Canadiens 2, Bruins 1

Michael Ryder scored on the power play with 11.1 seconds remaining for visiting Montreal. Boston's Tom Fitzgerald was called for hooking with 26 seconds to play. Jan Bulis also scored for the Canadiens and Jose Theodore made 29 saves.

Patrice Bergeron scored for Boston, which outshot the Canadiens 30-21 but failed to score on seven power-play opportunities, including four in the third period.

Capitals 3, Blue Jackets 2

Alexander Ovechkin became the first Washington player to score twice in his NHL debut and new captain Jeff Halpern had three assists.

Dan Fritsche scored both goals for visiting Columbus, twice as many as he had in his entire rookie season. All five goals came in a 10-minute span in the second period.

Panthers 2, Thrashers 0

Roberto Luongo made 34 saves for his 24th career shutout, and Nathan Horton and Lucas Krajicek scored in the third period for Florida.

Kari Lehtonen started in goal for visiting Atlanta and stopped six shots before injuring his groin. He was replaced at the start the second period by Mike Dunham. Atlanta has lost four of its six openers.

Rangers 5, Flyers 3

Jaromir Jagr scored two power-play goals in the third period to lead visiting New York, which overcame a two-goal deficit with four straight goals.

Peter Forsberg had two assists in his first game with the Flyers after leaving Colorado.

Red Wings 5, Blues 1

Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and an assist in the opening seven minutes and Manny Legace needed to make a mere 13 saves for Detroit, which cut its payroll almost in half because of the NHL's $39 million salary cap.

Patrick Lalime allowed four goals on 24 shots before the visiting Blues replaced him with Reinhard Divis midway through the second period.

Lightning 5, Hurricanes 2

Vinny Prospal scored 81 seconds in on Tampa Bay's first shot of the season and then added two assists following the raising of the 2003-04 championship banner in an emotional pregame ceremony.

Radim Vrbata and Eric Staal scored for Carolina.

Devils 5, Penguins 1

Brian Gionta and Sergei Brylin both scored two goals for New Jersey and rookie Zach Parise added a power-play goal and an assist. Martin Brodeur made 36 saves for the Devils.

Sidney Crosby, the 18-year-old overall No. 1 draft pick, had an assist in his debut for visiting Pittsburgh. His pairing with 40-year-old player-owner Mario Lemieux wasn't effective as the Penguins finished 1-for-11 on the power play.

Wild 6, Flames 3

Marc Chouinard scored three goals, Todd White added a goal and two assists and Pierre-Marc Bouchard had three assists for Minnesota.

Miikka Kiprusoff, who led the league with a 1.70 goals-allowed average in 2003-04, gave up five goals on 27 shots for visiting Calgary.

Predators 3, Sharks 2

Scott Hartnell broke a 2-2 tie with 4:13 left, and Tomas Vokoun stopped 22 shots for Nashville, which also got a goal from Paul Kariya, the biggest free agent signee in franchise history.

Nils Ekman and Patrick Marleau scored for visiting San Jose, the lone unbeaten team in the preseason.

Mighty Ducks 5, Blackhawks 3

Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer scored power-play goals, and Joffrey Lupul and Rob Niedermayer added short-handed goals for Anaheim.

Chicago's Nikolai Khabibulin _ the highest profile goalie in last summer's free agent market after helping Tampa Bay win the Stanley Cup _ allowed all five goals on 24 shots.

Stars 5, Kings 4

Philippe Boucher scored with 4:46 to play to cap Dallas' comeback from an early four-goal deficit. Jason Arnott had a goal and three assists for the Stars, while Bill Guerin had a goal and an assist.

Newly acquired Jeremy Roenick scored twice as visiting Los Angeles went up 3-0 after just 4:18. Dustin Brown stretched the lead by scoring with 8.1 seconds left in the first period.

Oilers 4, Avalanche 3

Shawn Horcoff scored 24 seconds into the game and then added the winner with 3:18 to play for Edmonton. Ryan Smyth had a goal and two assists for the Oilers.

Brent Clark and newcomers Antti Laaksonen and Patrice Brisebois scored for visiting Colorado.

Canucks 3, Coyotes 2

Markus Naslund scored twice and Dan Cloutier made 30 saves for Vancouver in spoiling the coaching debut of Wayne Gretzky.

The visiting Coyotes almost provided a great ending for ``The Great One,'' pulling within 3-2 with 43 seconds left on a power-play goal by Oleg Saprykin with goalie Curtis Joseph pulled for an extra attacker.

Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi returned after serving a 17-month suspension for his March 8, 2004, blindside attack that left Colorado's Steve Moore with a concussion and broken bones in his neck. He assisted on Naslund's first goal.