Bruins Rout Predators 6-0, Leafs Edge Rangers 5-4 in NHL

Boston and Pittsburgh shut out their opponents, Toronto won a nine goal game at home, San Jose scored six in Ottawa and New Jersey handled Anaheim on a five game Thursday night in the NHL.

The widest win came at TD Garden, where the Boston Bruins beat the Nashville Predators 6-0. David Pastrnak scored two goals and added two assists. Charlie McAvoy had four assists. Michael DiPietro stopped all 28 shots for his first career shutout. Boston scored twice in each period. Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring at 3:49 of the first period, Elias Lindholm made it 2-0 on a power play at 16:38, Pastrnak and JJ Peterka scored in the second, and Mark Kastelic and Pastrnak again scored in the third. The Bruins improved to 8-2-1 and extended their point streak to seven games at 6-0-1. Nashville fell to 3-3-3 and has lost four of its last five. Justus Annunen made 25 saves in his first start of the season.

In Pittsburgh, the Penguins beat the Florida Panthers 4-0 to end a four game losing run. Nick Robertson scored twice, at 15:19 of the first period and into an empty net at 17:34 of the third. Hendrix Lapierre scored at 9:59 of the second and added an assist. Evgeni Malkin scored at 1:40 of the third and also had an assist. Arturs Silovs made 26 saves for his second shutout of the season. Pittsburgh had gone 1-6-1 in its previous eight games. Florida was shut out for the first time this season, one night after a 5-1 loss at Ottawa. Cooper Black made 17 saves in his NHL debut for the Panthers. At 6 foot 9, Black became the tallest goaltender in league history.

Toronto gave home fans the closest game of the night, a 5-4 win over the New York Rangers at Scotiabank Arena. Easton Cowan and Teddy Blueger scored in the first period around a goal from Mika Zibanejad, and Toronto led 2-1. The second period brought five goals. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Tye Kartye put New York ahead, Brandon Duhaime tied the game at 3-3, and Kirill Marchenko sent Toronto into the third period up 4-3. The Rangers tied the game late in the third. Troy Stecher then scored with 28 seconds left, off passes from Morgan Rielly and Duhaime, to win it. Toronto's fourth line, Blueger, Duhaime and Zack MacEwen, combined for seven points after recording none in the team's earlier games. Adam Fox had four assists for New York. Toronto outshot the Rangers 35 to 25 and improved to 6-4. New York fell to 7-4.

San Jose won 6-2 at Ottawa despite being outshot 42 to 28. Yaroslav Askarov made 40 saves for the Sharks. San Jose scored three goals in the second period to take control. Collin Graf and Jacob Trouba each had a goal and an assist, and Kiefer Sherwood set up two goals. Tim Stutzle and Jordan Spence scored for Ottawa. Fabian Zetterlund put nine shots on goal for the Senators and came away with one assist.

New Jersey beat Anaheim 4-1 in Newark. Arseny Gritsyuk scored at 4:38 of the first period, his fifth goal of the season and his fourth straight game with a goal. Nico Hischier scored on a power play at 19:19 of the first, also his fifth. Tim Washe cut the lead to 2-1 at 8:20 of the third for Anaheim. Anthony Mantha restored the two goal lead at 13:27, and Jack Hughes scored into an empty net at 19:53. Jesper Bratt had two assists and Nico Daws made 16 saves. New Jersey improved to 6-4-0 and has won four of five. Anaheim fell to 4-6-0 and has lost five in a row after a 4-1-0 start. Ville Husso made 25 saves for the Ducks.

What it means

Two shutouts on the same night underlined the gap between the early contenders and the teams chasing them. Boston has points in seven straight games. Toronto keeps winning close home games on scoring depth rather than star turns, and on Thursday that depth was its fourth line. For Florida and Anaheim, the lesson was the opposite. Florida played its second game in two nights and did not score. Anaheim has followed a strong opening week with five straight losses.

What happens next

The Ducks play at Philadelphia on Saturday, and the Devils host Los Angeles the same day. The Panthers play at Chicago on Sunday. Boston, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Ottawa and San Jose all return to the schedule this weekend as the early standings take shape.