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The NHL's opening week delivered its first overtime drama on Tuesday, headlined by Owen Power's winner as the Buffalo Sabres rallied from two goals down to beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2, on a night when the league's young stars announced themselves across the map.
Buffalo looked beaten before it looked brilliant. Minnesota controlled the early game and built a 2-0 lead, but the Sabres clawed back to force overtime, where Power — the former first-overall pick anchoring Buffalo's blue line — ended it. For a franchise whose season hinges on converting promise into a playoff place, a comeback win in the season's opening days is precisely the tone it needed.
Elsewhere, the Utah Mammoth continued their strong start, beating the New Jersey Devils 5-3 behind Nick Schmaltz's league-leading fifth goal of the young season. Utah's offensive depth, a question entering the year, has answered itself early: multiple lines are scoring, and Schmaltz is playing like a player who intends to be discussed among the league's elite.
In the battle of New York, Alexis Lafrenière scored a hat trick as the Rangers beat the Islanders for their fourth consecutive win. Lafrenière's emergence was the promise of his draft position; performances like Tuesday's — decisive, clinical, in a rivalry game — are how promise becomes reputation.
The night's most dramatic game unfolded in Toronto, where Auston Matthews capped a four-point evening with the overtime winner as the Maple Leafs erased a 3-0 deficit to beat the Nashville Predators 5-4. Rookie Gavin McKenna scored his first NHL goal in the comeback. Nashville's Steven Stamkos scored twice in defeat, moving up the league's all-time scoring list.
Carolina also flexed its depth, with Taylor Hall scoring twice in a 6-4 win over Montreal, while Dylan Larkin marked his return to Detroit's lineup by leading the Red Wings past the previously unbeaten Ottawa Senators 5-3.
A week into the season, the standings mean little, but the signals are accumulating: Utah and Buffalo are playing with genuine belief, the Rangers have found early rhythm, and the league's next generation — Power, McKenna, Lafrenière — is not waiting its turn. October hockey is supposed to be a warm-up. Nobody told this year's cast.
The early-season numbers flatter to deceive, but the underlying stories are substantive. Schmaltz's league-leading five goals reflect a Utah team whose top six was assembled to score and finally has the goaltending to protect what it builds. Lafrenière's hat trick matters for the opposite reason: the Rangers' ceiling has always depended on whether their high picks become stars or merely players, and nights like Tuesday's tilt the answer.
Buffalo's comeback may be the most consequential result of the night. The Sabres own the league's longest playoff drought and a fan base that has heard every promise; a 3-2 overtime win built from two goals down, finished by the defenceman drafted to be the franchise's cornerstone, is the sort of early evidence that belief is rational this time. Minnesota, which controlled two periods and lost, will treat the collapse as an early warning about closing games on the road.
Toronto, meanwhile, got its Hollywood script: the rookie's first goal, the captain's overtime winner, a three-goal hole erased at home. It also conceded four to a Nashville team that finished the night winless — the kind of detail that will follow the Leafs until their defensive record says otherwise. October offers every team the version of itself it wants to believe in. The standings will start editing those beliefs within the month.
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