Capitals’ Wilson has suspension cut to 14 games

Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson had his 20-game suspension reduced to 14 by a neutral arbitrator, making him eligible to return playing immediately.

Wilson made his return to the ice Tuesday and made an impact right off the bat, scoring a firstperiod goal in the Captials’ 5-2 win over the Wild.

He had already served 16 games of his suspension for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis forward Oskar Sundqvist in each team’s preseason finale.

The ruling by Shyam Das means the 24-year-old will recoup $378,049 of the $1.26 million he initially forfeited as part of the suspension.

The 20-game ban handed down by the NHL’s department of player safety came after Wilson was suspended three previous times in 13 months.

DEVILS 4, PENGUINS 2: Taylor Hall scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway at 8:07 of the third period and added an empty-net tally to lead the New Jersey Devils to a victory over the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins. Hall also had two assists, and Travis Zajac and Damon Severson each had a goal and an assist as the Devils snapped a threegame losing streak by beating the Penguins for the second time in just over a week. ISLANDERS 5, CANUCKS 2: Tom Kuhnhackl scored two unusual goals to lead the New York Islanders to a victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist and Josh Bailey also scored to help the Islanders end a threegame skid. Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson each had two assists and Thomas Greiss stopped 22 shots as New York improved to 5-0-2 in the last seven meetings against Vancouver.

PANTHERS 2, FLYERS 1: Aaron Ekblad and Evgenii Dadonov scored goals, Roberto Luongo made 29 saves and the Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers for their fifth straight win. Jakub Voracek had the lone goal for the Flyers, who had won three straight and five of six.

RED WINGS 6, COYOTES 1: Defenseman Mike Green had a goal and two assists and the Detroit Red Wings extended their winning streak to four games with a victory over the Arizona Coyotes. Andreas Athanasiou added a goal and an assist for the third straight game.

SABRES 2, LIGHTNING 1: Carter Hutton stopped 30 shots and the Buffalo Sabres won their third straight game by beating the Eastern Conferenceleading Tampa Bay Lightning. Jeff Skinner scored his team-leading 13th goal and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo.