Defending champions get first victory

Ray Whitney bailed out a Carolina team that was perhaps overanxious for its first win.

The former Spokane Chief scored on a tip-in with one-half second left in the third period, lifting the Hurricanes past the Atlanta Thrashers 4-3 on Friday night, the defending Stanley Cup champions’ first victory of the season.

Cam Ward stopped 31 shots for the Hurricanes, who were off to a 0-3-1 start, and Craig Adams scored twice.

Jon Sim scored two goals in a 22-second span in the second period for Atlanta, which opened the season 3-0-1.

Panthers 3, Lightning 2: At Sunrise, Fla., Jay Bouwmeester scored with 9 minutes left in the third period to break a tie and Alexander Auld made 21 saves as Florida beat Tampa Bay, the Lightning’s third straight loss.

Juraj Kolnik and Nathan Horton also scored for Florida, which has won seven of its last eight home games against the Lightning.

Sabres 3, Red Wings 2 (SO): At Detroit, Ales Kotalik’s shootout goal gave undefeated Buffalo a victory over Detroit.

Daniel Briere also scored for the Sabres in the shootout, their third in four games this season. Pavel Datsyuk got Detroit’s only shootout goal.

Chris Drury and Thomas Vanek scored in regulation for Buffalo and Ryan Miller made 41 saves.

Sharks 6, Canucks 4: At Vancouver, British Columbia, Curtis Brown and Mike Grier both beat Roberto Luongo on third-period breakaways to lift San Jose to victory over Vancouver.

Patrick Marleau, Christian Ehrhoff, Patrick Rissmiller and Ville Nieminen also scored for San Jose. Markus Naslund scored his 300th goal as a Canuck, tying Trevor Linden for the franchise record, and Kevin Bieksa netted his first NHL goal for Vancouver.

Malkin readies for debut

Pittsburgh Penguins rookie center Evgeni Malkin took part in limited contact drills in practice with his teammates, and head coach Michel Therrien said the Russian star could make his NHL debut as early as next week.

Recovering from a dislocated shoulder suffered in a preseason game, he probably will not play today against Carolina, and doctors will decide whether he will play Wednesday against New Jersey, Therrien said.