Blue Jackets Start Off Strong but Still Lose

For a while, the Columbus Blue Jackets looked more like a playoff contender than an expansion team.

“But hockey is a 60-minute game, not a 12-minute game,” Columbus goalie Ron Tugnutt said Saturday night after the Blue Jackets frittered away a 3-0 lead in the first game in franchise history and lost, 5-3, to the Chicago Blackhawks before a capacity crowd of 18,136 at Columbus, Ohio.

For most of the last two periods, the Blue Jackets looked like the collection of expansion draftees, castoffs, career minor leaguers and unproven rookies that they are.

Ottawa 3, Dallas 1--Patrick Lalime made 23 saves for the Senators in their home opener before a sellout crowd of 18,500 at Kanata, Canada, in a victory over the Western Conference defending champions.

Alexei Yashin, Rob Zamuner and Andreas Dackell scored for Ottawa.

Toronto 2, Montreal 0--Curtis Joseph, limited by injury to two exhibition games, had 26 saves as the Maple Leafs opened their season by beating the Canadiens at Toronto.

Joseph, recovering from a strained groin, got the 27th shutout of his career.

Boston 5, Philadelphia 1--Byron Dafoe stopped 27 shots and the Bruins won convincingly at Philadelphia, but it still wasn’t a good night for Dafoe.

He was shaken up when he got hit by Keith Primeau’s stick in the first minute of the third period, and later in the period he had to leave the game because of a pulled left hamstring.

Andrew Raycroft, making his first NHL appearance, replaced him and made four saves.

Dafoe said his injury is not serious.

Carolina 3, Washington 3--Richard Zednik scored with 1:47 left in regulation as the Capitals twice rallied for the tie at Raleigh, N.C.

The draw extended Carolina’s NHL-best unbeaten string in overtime to 19 in a row (4-0-15).

New York Rangers 2, Atlanta 1--Mark Messier picked up an assist in his first game with the Rangers since leaving for the Vancouver Canucks in 1997 and Valeri Kamensky and Petr Nedved scored power-play goals late in the first period for the Rangers at Atlanta.

Phoenix 4, Minnesota 1--Rookie defenseman Ossi Vaanenen, playing in his first NHL game, broke a tie with a second-period goal as the Coyotes beat the expansion Wild at Phoenix.

Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick and Shane Doan also scored for Phoenix, which got three goals on its revamped power play.

Colorado 1, Edmonton 1--Tommy Salo stopped 26 shots and Igor Ulanov scored a third-period goal to give the Oilers a tie with the Avalanche at Edmonton.

Nashville 3, Pittsburgh 1--The Predators won the first of a two-game series in Japan. It was played Saturday night in Omiya--it ended after midnight in Los Angeles. The second game was played Sunday night in Toyko and was not completed by press time here Saturday night. This marks the third time the NHL has opened its season in Japan. The last was in 1998, when Calgary played San Jose.