EDMONTON, Alberta — Mike Smith didn’t look like a guy that has missed half a season.
Smith made 44 saves in his return from a 40-game injury absence and Antoine Vermette had two goals and an assist to help the Arizona Coyotes beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 Saturday night.
It was the 29th shutout of Smith’s career and his second this season. He returned after having surgery to repair a core muscle injury.
“It was nice to get back out there obviously,” Smith said. “I haven’t played in a long time and I couldn’t draw it up much better than that. I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people.”
Viktor Tikhonov and Alex Tanguay also scored for the Coyotes, who have won two straight on the road on the heels of a franchise-record 10-game losing streak as the away team.
Cam Talbot stopped 25 shots for the Oilers, who have lost two of their last three.
“The smarter team won the game, hands down,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “We had 44 shots on net, but other than Taylor (Hall’s) breakaway, I don’t recall having one single outnumbered rush. On the other end, we gave up five or six clear-cut 2-on-1s.
Devils 2, Kings 1 (OT): John Moore scored with 15.2 seconds left in overtime to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Tyler Kennedy scored and Keith Kinkaid made 22 saves for New Jersey, which has won the first two games of its three-game California road trip. The Devils improved to 33-29-7.
Red Wings 3, Rangers 2 (OT): Detroit collected a second consecutive come-from-behind win when a Darren Helm goal with 1:57 left in overtime gave the Red Wings a 3-2 home victory over the New York Rangers.
The Red Wings forced overtime after center Brad Richards tied it at 2-2 on a power play with 28 seconds left in regulation.
Sabres 3, Hurricanes 2 (OT): Jack Eichel scored with one second remaining in overtime to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-2 home win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Eichel and Marcus Foligno scored in regulation for Buffalo (28-33-9).
Blues 5, Stars 4 (OT): Alex Pietrangelo scored the game-winning goal 2:11 into overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 5-4 overtime win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night at American Airlines Center.
Pietrangelo scored his fifth goal of the season with a wrist shot from the slot that deflected in off the right arm of Stars goaltender Antti Niemi, who stopped 31 of 36 shots.
Bruins 3, Islanders 1: The Boston Bruins, playing their first game as a first-place team this season, got two goals from David Pastrnak and completed a sweep of the three-game season series with the New York Islanders with a 3-1 home victory.
Goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 25 shots and Loui Eriksson scored one goal and set up the other two for the victory as the Atlantic Division leading Bruins improved to 39-23-8.
Senators 4, Maple Leafs 0: The Ottawa Senators halted their losing streak at three games with a 4-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Craig Anderson had 29 saves in his fourth shutout of the season and the 33rd of his career.
Jets 3, Avalanche 2: Drew Stafford and Adam Lowry scored third-period goals to lift the Winnipeg Jets to a 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.
Lowry finished a 2-on-1 with rookie winger Scott Kosmachuk, scoring his fifth of the season at 9:01 to give the Jets their first lead of the game. Just 95 seconds earlier, Stafford stuffed in a rebound for his 18th goal of the year to knot the contest 2-2.
Other results: Wild 4, Canadiens 1; Panthers 5, Flyers 4; Canucks 4, Predators 2; Sharks 5, Capitals 2.
