Friday's hockey: No. 4 MSU blanks Canisius; Danielson scores first pro goal

Detroit Red Wings' first-round draft pick Nate Danielson scored his first professional goal in the Grand Rapids Griffins' 2-1 victory against the Springfield Thunderbirds on Friday at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.

Danielson, who was scoreless in two playoff games with Grand Rapids last year and scoreless in the first four regular-season games this year, scored a power-play goal at 16:46 of the second period. Assisting on the goal was Ann Arbor's Austin Watson and Czech free agent Jakub Rychlovsky with his first AHL point.

Ville Husso started the game and turned away 10 shots before his shutout string ended at 126:13. Husso left the game in the second period and was replaced by Sebastian Cossa, who stopped 21-of-21 shots for the victory. The Griffins will face the Lehigh Valley Flyers on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.

No. 4 Michigan State (4-1) earned a 3-0 shutout victory on the road at Canisius on Friday night in Buffalo, N.Y.

Trey Augustine (Red Wings draft pick/South Lyon) recorded his first shutout of the season with 15 saves and fourth of his career and Tanner Kelly, Joey Larson and Daniel Russell scored the goals.

The teams meet again in Buffalo on Saturday at 7 p.m.

No. 10 Michigan beat the NTDP U18s, 5-4, in overtime, in an exhibition game at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor.

Michael Hage scored the OT winner with the other goals going to Christian Humphreys, TJ Hughes, Hunter Hady and Phillippe Lapointe. Will Moore, Lincoln Kuehne, Richard Gallant and Drew Schock replied for the U18s.

Michigan will play two non-conference games against Boston University on Friday and Saturday.

▶ (At) Edmonton 4, Pittsburgh 0: Stuart Skinner made 27 saves for his fifth career shutout and Viktor Arvidsson had three assists for the Oilers.

Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm each had a goal and an assist. Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers (3-4-1), who had struggled offensively to start the season, scoring just 14 goals in their first seven games.

The game was highly touted as a superstar showdown between Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Pens' veteran Sidney Crosby, but both were kept off the scoresheet.

The Penguins (3-5-1) have dropped four straight. Joel Blomqvist had 46 saves for Pittsburgh.

▶ N.Y. Islanders 4, (at) New Jersey 3 (OT): Bo Horvat scored 1:09 into overtime winner, Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri also scored for the Islanders, and Ilya Sorokin stopped 32 shots.

Nico Hischier, Curtis Lazar and Jesper Bratt scored for the Devils, who lost their fourth straight since starting the season 5-2-0. Jake Allen finished with 26 saves.

▶ (At) Vegas 6, Ottawa 4: Tomas Hertl and Keegan Kolesar scored a minute apart to give Vegas the lead, and they beat Ottawa.

Ivan Barbashev had two goals, and Nicolas Roy and Nicolas Hague also scored for the Golden Knights. Alex Pietrangelo had three assists, and Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Tanner Pearson each added two. Adin Hill made 34 saves to earn his third win of the season.

Vegas has now scored six goals in back-to-back games and is averaging 4.37 goals per game.

Adam Gaudette had two goals while Claude Giroux and Drake Bratherson also scored for the Senators. Linus Ullmark made 22 saves.

Ottawa came into the game 3-0-0 when scoring first, and also when leading after two periods, but could hold its lead against the fourth-highest scoring team in the league.

▶ Nashville 3, (at) Chicago 2: Brady Skjei’s scored a tiebreaking power-play goal with 6:53 left in the the third period, and Nashville rallied to beat Chicago.

Filip Forsberg split Chicago’s defense for a highlight reel goal with 6:19 left in the second period, then Gustav Nyquist got a short-handed score 2:18 later for his 200th career goal that tied it at 2-2. Juuse Saros stopped 27 shots.

Connor Bedard and Craig Smith scored to give Chicago a 2-0 lead, but the Blackhawks lost their third straight. Alexandre Carrier had two assists and Petr Mrazek finished with 31 saves.

The New York Rangers signed winger Alexis Lafrenière to a seven-year contract extension Friday.

The deal is worth $52.15 million, according to a person with knowledge of the contract. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because terms were not disclosed.

Lafrenière will count $7.45 million against the salary cap annually from when the new contract kicks in next NHL season through 2032.

The No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft set career highs with 28 goals, 29 assists and 57 points last season. Lafrenière, 23, is off to a point-a-game start to this one, as well, with seven in seven.

He has 178 points in 348 regular-season and playoff games for a team that has made two trips to the Eastern Conference final since he made his debut.

Lafrenière’s cap hit is just below the $7.6 million Montreal annually committed to 2022 top pick Juraj Slafkovsky. New Jersey’s Jack Hughes, No. 1 in 2019, is making $8 million a year through 2030 and Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin, who was atop the draft in ’21, $11 million through 2032.

While Lafrenière would have been a restricted free agent this summer, the Rangers still have a major re-signing to take care of. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin is a pending unrestricted free agent who, without a new contract, could hit the open market July 1.

Shesterkin could sign the most lucrative contract of a goalie in the two decades of the salary cap era, surpassing the eight years and $84 million Carey Price got from the Canadiens in 2017. Within the past several weeks, Dallas signed Jake Oettinger and Boston signed Jeremy Swayman to matching deals of $66 million over eight years.

The Rangers sent forward Matt Rempe to Hartford of the American Hockey League on Thursday night. Rempe played just over 11 minutes combined in two games and was a healthy scratch in the others.

Friday

▶ Grand Rapids 2, Springfield 1

▶ Michigan State 3, Canisius 0

▶ Arizona State 3, Northern Michigan 1

▶ Clarkson 4, Michigan Tech 3 (OT)

▶ Ferris State 4, Bemidji State 3

▶ Michigan 5, NTDP U18 4 (OT)

▶ Dubuque 3, NTDP U17 0

Saturday

▶ Red Wings at Sabres, 1

▶ Grand Rapids at Lehigh Valley, 7

▶ Michigan State at Canisius, 7

▶ Western Michigan at Boston College, 7

▶ Clarkson at Michigan Tech, 6

▶ Bemidji State at Ferris State, 6

▶ NTDP U18 at Adrian, 3

▶ NTDP U17 at Dubuque, 8

Sunday

▶ Oilers at Red Wings, 6

▶ Grand Rapids at Lehigh Valley, 3

Wednesday, Oct. 30

▶ Jets at Red Wings, 7:30

▶ Grand Rapids at Hartford, 7