Red Wings defeat Capitals in overtime
Red Wings 3, Capitals 2 (OT): Robby Fabbri tied it early in the third period, captain Dylan Larkin scored in overtime and visiting Detroit came back to beat Washington Wednesday night.
Larkin beat Vitek Vanecek 1:37 into OT. Adam Erne started the comeback with a goal in the second, and Thomas Greiss made 26 saves for the Red Wings.
Alex Ovechkin scored his eighth goal of the season and Evgeny Kuznetsov his fifth to stake Washington to a 2-0 lead. Ovechkin’s goal was the 738th of his career, putting him three back of Brett Hull for fourth on the NHL career list.
Aside from those two power-play goals, the Capitals looked out of sorts against a less talented opponent and paid the price for a few defensive zone blunders and bad rebounds.
They were lucky to come out of it with a point and have yet to lose this season in regulation. Detroit has won four of its first seven games, showing significant progress in the middle of a long-term organizational rebuild.
Making his fifth start of the season, Vanecek allowed three goals on 25 shots. Detroit’s penalty kill stopped Washington on a power play midway through the third period to help the game get to OT.
Panthers 4, Bruins 1: Host Florida became the 14th team in NHL history to start 7-0-0 by beating Boston – with coach Joel Quenneville on the bench a day after he was named in a report about the Chicago Blackhawks improperly handling sexual assault claims.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for the Panthers, and Eetu Luostarinen scored the go-ahead goal. Anthony Duclair and Mason Marchment also scored, and Owen Tippett added an empty-net goal. Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling each had two assists.
Charlie Coyle scored for the Bruins, and Linus Ullmark made 23 saves in his third consecutive start.
Quenneville is scheduled to meet with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday about the report, which detailed an investigation into how the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks – the team Quenneville coached to the Stanley Cup – did not promptly and properly handle sexual assault claims a player made against an assistant coach.
Maple Leafs 3, Blackhawks 2: William Nylander scored in overtime to lift visiting Toronto over Chicago.
The Leafs snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory, and extended the Blackhawks’ record to 0-6-1 since the start of the season.
John Tavares and David Kampf also scored for Toronto, and Jack Campbell stopped 25 shots. Chicago got 36 saves from Kevin Lankinen, and goals from Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat.
Nylander broke in on a 2-on-0 and snapped a wrist shot past Lankinen in in OT.