Holtby hits milestone as Capitals beat Penguins
WASHINGTON » John Carlson and T.J. Oshie scored rare home power-play goals, Braden Holtby became the second-fastest goaltender in NHL history to 200 victories and the Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 Friday night.
Holtby stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced to pick up victory No. 200 in his 319th game, second only to Hockey Hall of Famer and six-time Stanley Cup winner Ken Dryden, who did it in 311. The only goal he allowed was credited to Phil Kessel but went in off Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov.
Chandler Stephenson also scored for the Capitals on a feed from Nicklas Backstrom, who snapped his career-worst point drought at seven games. In his first game on Washington’s top line, Stephenson picked up his fifth point in eight games.
Holtby said it wasn’t his goal to get to 200 victories, but he appreciates being so close to Dryden in the record books.
“I’d read his book at a pretty young age so I kind of know the history of his career, how intelligent he is as a person and as a goalie and he’s taught the goaltending world a lot of things and the hockey world in general,” Holtby said. “Any time you can be mentioned in the same breath as him is pretty cool.” SENATORS 4, AVALANCHE 3 » Mark Stone scored in regulation and again in overtime to give Ottawa a victory over Colorado in the first of two regular-season games in the Swedish capital of Stockholm
Swedish defenseman Fredrik Claesson and Christopher DiDomenico also scored for the Senators.
Nail Yakupov, Alexander Kerfoot and Nathan MacKinnon scored for Colorado.
The teams will complete the NHL Global Series in Stockholm on Saturday night. It’s for the fifth time the NHL has played regular-season games in Europe, but the first since 2011.
The capacity crowd of 13,000 spectators at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe cheered loudly for both teams, each led by Swedish captains — Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog and Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson. PANTHERS 4, SABRES 1 » Roberto Luongo broke a tie with Curtis Joseph for fourth place on the NHL career victory list with 455, making 24 saves in Florida’s win over Buffalo.
Evgenii Dadonov and Aleksander Barkov each had a goal and an assist, and Ian McCoshen and Vincent Trocheck also scored to help the Panthers snap a five-game skid. MAPLE LEAFS 3, BRUINS 2» Patrick Marleau scored in overtime to give Toronto a victory over Boston in the first game of a home-andhome series.
James van Riemsdyk scored twice, the second to tie it with a minute left in regulation, and Frederik Andersen made 33 saves. The Maple Leafs have won three in a row to improve to 11-7-0.
Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak scored for Boston, and Anton Khudobin stopped 30 shots.
Boston will host the back end of the two-game set Saturday night. HURRICANES 3, BLUE JACKETS 1» Jordan Staal had two goals, Cam Ward made 25 saves and Carolina beat Columbus.
Staal snapped a 1-1 tie 8:54 into the third period when he beat Sergei Bobrovsky from the slot.
Teuvo Teravainen assisted on each of Staal’s goals, and Brock McGinn got an empty-net goal.