The three-game sweep starts in Columbus where the Blue Jackets were hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs Friday in a battle of two teams struggling in the early going.
In the end, a strong third period by the Leafs propelled them to a 6-3 win over the Jackets and give Mike Babcock his first win as Leafs coach.
“I like winning as much as the next guy and maybe more than the next guy,” Babcock said. “I’m kind of used to it. A lot of positive things have happened since I arrived here
Joffrey Lupul got the game winner when he broke the three all tie in the third.
“If you’re winning there’s always going to be a time when the other team has a push,” Lupul said. “That happened in the second period, then they scored a nice power-play goal to start the third period. We stuck with it. We thought we were the better team the majority of the game so we were confident.”
Leo Komarov scored twice inside the last five minutes of regulation to ice the win.
The Jackets have lost all five games so far this season and it is getting ugly in Columbus.
“We’re getting booed off the ice,” Columbus center Brandon Dubinsky said. “We know everyone’s giving up on us. We can’t give up on each other.
“We have to take a good hard look at ourselves. We’ve got to grab onto something. We’re failing down the hill right now.”
In Detroit, it was a night firsts with the Red Wings losing their first of the season and the Carolina Hurricanes winning their first.
Kris Versteeg and Eric Staal led the Canes with a goal and two assists each in the 5-3 win.
“In all of our games, we’ve been right there to win. … We’ve been in every game so far. It’s nice to finally win one,” Versteeg said. “… It’s great, really rewarding. We should have gotten it before tonight. But it was a big win tonight.”
Cam Ward made 17 saves in the win and Jimmy Howard was busy with 31 saves.
Gustav Nyquist, Riley Sheahan and Teemu Pulkkinen scored for the Wings.
“Our guys know it, we weren’t good enough tonight. They had more jump than we had,” said Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, who lost for the first time as an NHL coach. “Sometimes it comes down to schematic stuff, sometimes you’re playing well and it just doesn’t go your way. I thought tonight we didn’t win enough puck races, puck battles that it takes to win hockey games.”
In Vancouver, Jake Allen had 31 saves in a win for the St Louis Blues over the Canucks, 4-3.
“We battled. We grinded,” Allen said. “It wasn’t pretty but it doesn’t have to be.”
It was the second game in as many nights for the Blues and third in four nights. There was little left in the tank by the end of this game.
“You could see the effects of playing three in four nights in the last five minutes,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said, “But we held it together.”
The Canucks could not quite get the jump in the end to tie the game late.
“I didn’t think we played well enough to be in this game,” Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin said. “We’re a team that battles and you’ve got to give us some credit for that, but a little too late.”
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