NHL Recap: Predators Beat Canadiens 5-2, Stankoven Hat Trick

Our NHL recap for Thursday, Oct. 8 covers ten games, led by the Canadiens’ 5-2 home loss to the Nashville Predators at the Bell Centre. Montreal outshot Nashville 34-20 and led 2-0, then gave up five straight goals, including two power-play goals and two empty-netters. Elsewhere in this NHL recap, Vegas beat Toronto in a shootout, Logan Stankoven scored a hat trick in Carolina’s 7-2 win, and Colorado scored seven in Calgary. Every game in this NHL recap includes one official highlight video. If you missed Wednesday’s slate, our NHL recap from Oct. 7 covers all three games, and more is on the Hockey Informers home page.

Predators 5, Canadiens 2

The Canadiens controlled most of this game and still lost it. After a one-sided but scoreless first period, Nick Suzuki scored at 3:12 of the second while the teams were playing 4-on-4, collecting a loose puck in a scramble and banking a backhand through Juuse Saros’ legs, per NHL.com. Alex Newhook made it 2-0 at 8:50 after Josh Anderson forechecked Adam Wilsby into a turnover behind the net and fed him a centering pass. A Chris Kreider goal at 1:36 of the first period had already been wiped out, because Nashville challenged for offside and won.

Nashville cut into the lead at 15:06 of the second, when Alex Kerfoot tipped a Wilsby point shot for his first goal as a Predator. Then came the sequence that decided the night. Anderson was penalized for cross-checking Steven Stamkos into the post and dislodging the net, and Matthew Wood tied it with 32 seconds left in the period on the power play, scoring in a crease pileup after a video review upheld the goal, according to NHL.com. The Canadian Press also noted that Anderson was assessed a minor on the play.

The third period belonged to Saros. He stopped Anderson on a breakaway with about eight minutes left, a play that Anderson said he is “still thinking about.” Roman Josi then set up Ryan O’Reilly, who tipped his one-timer past Jacob Fowler on the power play with 3:16 remaining. Adam Edstrom added two empty-net goals 71 seconds apart, the first and second of his Predators career. Saros made 32 saves and was named first star by ESPN. Montreal was assessed five minor penalties to Nashville’s three and went 0-for-3 on the power play, and Nashville scored on two of its chances.

Fowler, 21, made 15 saves in his season debut after being recalled from Laval on Wednesday, when Samuel Montembeault left practice with a lower-body injury, according to NHL.com. Fowler said he thought Montreal was “playing a good game” before the late goal. Montreal’s skaters had a heavy night: Caufield put six shots on goal, Slafkovsky five, Anderson and Hutson four each, and Hutson led the team with 24:43 of ice time. The Canadiens also tried new line combinations, which the Winnipeg Free Press said had Slafkovsky back on the first line with Suzuki and Cole Caufield, while Kreider joined Newhook and Anderson on the second. Defenceman Adam Engstrom made his season debut, finished plus-1 in 11:49 and entered the lineup for Jayden Struble.

Martin St-Louis was not interested in moral victories, but he was not unhappy with the effort. “At five-on-five, it was our best game of the season,” he said, per the Winnipeg Free Press. “They were opportunistic on the power play, that’s about it.” Suzuki agreed that Montreal outplayed Nashville for most of the game but did not finish its chances. Josi had two assists and Stamkos had two more, and Suzuki’s seven points through four games are the most by a Canadiens skater at this point of a season since Alex Galchenyuk in 2013-14, per NHL.com.

The Canadiens are 1-2-1 with three points, seventh in the Atlantic Division, and winless in three games. They host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m. ET, and Montembeault’s status has not been updated. Follow the team on our Canadiens page. The takeaway from this NHL recap for Habs fans is that the process was good and the results were not, and the power play and discipline are the two places the game turned.

Highlights: Predators vs. Canadiens | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Golden Knights 4, Maple Leafs 3 (SO)

The first Canadian result in this NHL recap after Montreal is Toronto’s, and the Leafs scored three times in the first 8:37 and still lost. Jack Roslovic scored at 34 seconds, Easton Cowan roofed a breakaway shot at 3:20 and Nick Paul got a stick on a Darren Raddysh one-timer at 8:37, according to NHL.com. Mark Stone answered at 17:36, Brett Howden scored at 1:12 of the second on a Mitch Marner pass, and Jack Eichel tied it at 3:58 on a penalty shot after Morgan Rielly tripped him on a breakaway.

Neither team scored after that, and Trevor Connelly scored the deciding shootout goal for Vegas, which got a shootout goal from Braeden Bowman too, while Toronto’s Kirill Marchenko also scored in the tiebreaker. Sergei Bobrovsky made 40 saves for Toronto, and Adin Hill stopped 21 shots before the shootout. Vegas outshot Toronto 43-24 by the official count. Eichel has a point in all five games, with three goals and nine assists, and Vegas is 4-1-0 with three straight wins, while the Maple Leafs are 2-2-1 after their first road game of the season.

Highlights: Maple Leafs vs. Golden Knights | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Senators 2, Flyers 1

Ottawa won it on the power play. Nick Cousins tipped a Tyler Kleven point shot at 10:14 of the first period for a 1-0 lead, and Matvei Michkov tied it on the power play at 7:46 of the second, tapping in a loose puck after Trevor Zegras’ shot trickled through Linus Ullmark’s pads, per NHL.com. Carter Yakemchuk scored the winner at 13:01 of the third, one-timing a Claude Giroux feed on the power play for his second NHL goal.

Philadelphia had a 5-on-3 for 27 seconds at 7:50 of the third and could not score. Ullmark made 28 saves and Joseph Woll made 24. Yakemchuk said he was excited to be rewarded after a hard-fought game, and Ottawa is 3-1-0. The Flyers are 0-3-2 and have lost their first five games for the first time since 2008-09. There was also a scare in the first period, when William Eklund left with a lower-body injury after an awkward hit into the boards, and coach Travis Green had no update.

Highlights: Flyers vs. Senators | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Avalanche 7, Flames 3

The biggest scoreline in this NHL recap came in Calgary, where Colorado took control in the second period and then piled on. Devon Toews scored twice, once at 15:54 of the first and again at 6:45 of the second, and Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon scored 2:23 apart in the second for a 4-1 lead, per NHL.com. Makar added a slap shot at 5:35 of the third, and Jaden Schwartz scored twice in a span of about three minutes, with his second at 9:41 making it 7-3.

Calgary scored three times in the third period, too, with Mikael Backlund and Kevin Bahl scoring 71 seconds apart, but it was not enough. Makar and MacKinnon each had three points, and Scott Wedgewood made 26 saves in his first start of the season. Devin Cooley made 23 saves for the Flames, who are 0-4-0, and Jonathan Castagna had an assist in his NHL debut. Colorado improved to 3-1-0 after a 3-2 loss in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

Highlights: Avalanche vs. Flames | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Hurricanes 7, Canucks 2

Carolina scored three times in the first 9:25 of this NHL recap’s most lopsided road win and never let up. K’Andre Miller scored at 1:18, and Andrei Svechnikov scored two power-play goals, at 7:11 and 9:25, per NHL.com. Mark Jankowski made it 4-0 early in the second, and Jake DeBrusk scored 43 seconds later to give Vancouver some life.

It was Logan Stankoven’s night after that. He scored a short-handed goal at 13:13 and a power-play goal at 19:02 of the second, then completed his first NHL hat trick at 11:36 of the third, with Sean Walker assisting on all three for a career-high four assists. It was a natural hat trick with even-strength, power-play and short-handed goals, and Stankoven is the fourth player in Hurricanes history to do it. DeBrusk scored again at 13:04 of the third for his second goal of the night. Pyotr Kochetkov made 18 saves, and Kevin Lankinen allowed six goals on 18 shots before Leevi Meriläinen took over. Carolina is 3-1-1, and Vancouver is 2-3-0.

Highlights: Canucks vs. Hurricanes | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

NHL recap: the rest of Thursday

The rest of this NHL recap covers the other five games of the night, starting with a Sharks overtime win.

Sharks 3, Blues 2 (OT)

Darnell Nurse scored his first goal as a Shark at 1:03 of overtime, taking a backdoor pass from Ivar Stenberg, per NHL.com. Connor McMichael had given St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 3:52 of the first, Tyler Toffoli tied it at 8:48 of the second, and Dillon Dube’s short-handed goal put the Blues ahead at 1:39 of the third, his first NHL goal since Nov. 16, 2023. Collin Graf tied it at 6:05.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves in his first start of the year, and Joel Hofer made 24 for St. Louis. San Jose is 3-1-0 and all three wins have come in overtime, though captain Macklin Celebrini missed a second straight game with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day. The Blues have lost three straight and are 1-2-1.

Highlights: Sharks vs. Blues | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Bruins 6, Mammoth 1

The fastest start in this NHL recap belonged to Boston, which scored three times in the first period and never looked back. Casey Mittelstadt scored at 10:06, David Pastrnak scored on the power play at 14:22, and Mason Lohrei scored 89 seconds later, which chased Sebastian Cossa from the Utah net, per NHL.com. Pastrnak added another power-play goal at 4:40 of the second, Morgan Geekie scored on the power play at 7:57 and Matthew Poitras made it 6-0 at 14:08.

Pastrnak had two goals and two assists and tied Brad Marchand for fourth on Boston’s all-time goals list with 422, and Boston went 3-for-4 on the power play. Jeremy Swayman made 36 saves, and Jack McBain spoiled the shutout in the third. Utah went 0-for-7 with the man advantage. JJ Peterka, who was traded from Utah to Boston in June, had no shots in his first game against his old team. Boston and Utah are both 3-2-0.

Highlights: Mammoth vs. Bruins | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Stars 4, Sabres 0

Jake Oettinger made 26 saves for his second straight shutout, extending his scoreless streak to 146:55, per NHL.com. Jason Robertson scored at 9:03 of the first on a 2-on-1 with Mikko Rantanen, Sam Steel added a goal at 9:36 of the second, Rantanen scored at 13:57 and Roope Hintz scored on the power play at 15:34 for Dallas’ first power-play goal of the season.

Rantanen had a goal and three assists, his 26th career four-point game, and Wyatt Johnston added three assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 14 saves for Buffalo, which is 0-for-13 on the power play this season and has trailed by multiple goals in each of its last three games. Dallas is 2-2-0, and Buffalo is 2-2-0.

Highlights: Stars vs. Sabres | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Lightning 3, Wild 2

John Carlson scored twice in his first two goals with Tampa Bay, and Dennis Hildeby made 34 saves in his Lightning debut, according to NHL.com. Anthony Cirelli scored at 5:26 of the first and Carlson at 6:02, and Carlson added Tampa Bay’s first power-play goal of the season at 4:55 of the second after the Lightning had started 0-for-13. Quinn Hughes cut it to 2-1 at 2:32 of the second and Blake Coleman scored on the power play at 14:01, but Minnesota could not tie it.

Carlson had nine shots on goal, and Nikita Kucherov had two assists. Jesper Wallstedt made 32 saves for the Wild, who were without Olli Maatta, a late scratch with a lower-body injury. Tampa Bay is 3-1-0 and has won all three games on its homestand, while Minnesota is 2-1-1 and has lost two in a row.

Highlights: Wild vs. Lightning | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

Islanders 4, Blackhawks 1

Bo Horvat scored twice, including a power-play goal at 19:01 of the first period, and Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves for the win, per NHL.com. Emil Heineman scored at 6:44 of the second and Anthony Duclair added his first goal of the season at 9:38 before Chicago’s Frank Nazar scored on a Patrick Kane assist with the net empty at 17:26 of the third. Horvat sealed it into an empty net at 18:27.

Sorokin’s shutout streak reached 165:31, the longest of his career, before Nazar scored, and he also set an Islanders record for the longest home shutout streak to open a season at 108:00. Arvid Soderblom made 15 saves for Chicago, which is 1-4-0. Horvat has five points in four games and has scored a power-play goal in three straight.

Highlights: Blackhawks vs. Islanders | NHL Highlights | Oct 8, 2026

NHL recap: three stars of the night

1. Logan Stankoven, Hurricanes – a natural hat trick in a 7-2 win over Vancouver.
2. Juuse Saros, Predators – 32 saves, including a breakaway stop, in the comeback win in Montreal.
3. David Pastrnak, Bruins – two goals and two assists in a 6-1 win.

Up next

Friday brings four games: Seattle at Detroit, the Rangers at Washington and Pittsburgh at Columbus at 7 p.m. ET, then Anaheim at Winnipeg at 8 p.m. ET. Saturday’s slate is 14 games, including Detroit at Montreal at 7 p.m. ET. Watch all of the night’s videos on our Highlights page and check back tomorrow for the next NHL recap. A new NHL recap goes up every morning after a night with games.

Sources for this NHL recap

Scores, times and statistics in this NHL recap come from the NHL’s official game data, cross-checked against NHL.com game recaps, ESPN and the Canadian Press.