Oskar Lindblom, right, celebrates his empty-net goal with Scott Laughton after clinching a 5-2 win Friday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Chris Szagola/Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Travis Konecny recorded a hat trick and the Philadelphia Flyers survived losing team MVP Sean Couturier to an injury in a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
Ivan Provorov also scored and Oskar Lindblom added an empty-netter for the Flyers.
The Flyers swept their rival in the two-game home set, but can only hope they won’t lose Couturier for extended time. Couturier, the first Flyers player in 33 years to win the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward, was plowed into the boards early in the game and may have hurt his left shoulder.
CAPITALS 2, SABRES 1: Vitek Vanecek made 28 saves in his NHL debut, Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist and Washington swept the season-opening series at Buffalo.
Jakub Vrana scored his second goal of the season for the Capitals. Rasmus Ristolainen scored for Buffalo, and Linus Ullmark stopped 19 shots.
Wilson gave Washington the lead for good midway through the third period. Nicklas Backstrom dropped the puck off in the right circle for Wilson, and he flung a wrist shot over Ullmark’s glove.
LIGHTNING 5, BLACKHAWKS 2: Steven Stamkos, Ondrej Palat, Yanni Gourde and Blake Coleman each had a goal and an assist, and Tampa Bay completed a sweep of its season-opening two-game set against visiting Chicago.
The Lightning are 16-1-2 against the Blackhawks since the 2010-11 season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 34 shots for Tampa Bay, which started the season with consecutive victories for the first time since 2016-17.
Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks, and Collin Delia made 33 saves.
SENATORS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 3: Brady Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, Matt Murray made 20 saves in his Ottawa debut and the Senators beat visiting Toronto in their first game in more than 10 months.
Thomas Chabot, Austin Watson, Derek Stepan and Chris Tierney also scored for Ottawa. Josh Norris, Drake Batherson and Nikita Zaitsev each added two assists in the opener of a two-day set.
John Tavares had a goal and assist for Toronto, Zach Hyman and Alexander Kerfoot also scored, and Frederik Andersen stopped 19 shots.
NOTES
OILERS: Edmonton placed goalie Mike Smith on long-term injury reserve and re-assigned Olivier Rodrigue to the taxi squad, pending quarantine protocols.
Edmonton did not elaborate on Smith’s injury. He was supposed to start Thursday night at home against Vancouver but was declared inactive, forcing Mikko Koskinen into back-to-back starts.
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