Carlson, Capitals top Maple Leafs

John Carlson scored and had two assists, giving the defenseman an Nhl-high 14 points, and the Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 on Wednesday night in Washington for their first home win of the season.

Nicklas Backstrom added a goal and an assist, and Jakub Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored for Washington, which lost its first three home games for the first time since October 1983. Two of those defeats came in overtime.

Rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves in his first home start to earn his third career win. His last stop came as Washington killed off Carl Hagelin’s third-period penalty for hooking.

Kasperi Kapanen scored short-handed and assisted on Ilya Mikheyev’s goal as Toronto grabbed an early 2-0 lead. John Tavares scored late in the third to cut the deficit to 4-3.

Michael Hutchinson stopped 28 shots in his second start for the Maple Leafs, who lost on the road for the first time this season.

Toronto still led after the first intermission, but that turned into a 4-2 deficit during a 68-second stretch of the second period. PENGUINS 3, AVALANCHE 2, OT: Brandon Tanev scored a short-handed goal in overtime and Pittsburgh beat Colorado, the first loss of the season for the Avalanche. Tanev scored his first goal with the Penguins at 3:57 of overtime. He swooped into the zone short-handed and threw a shot on goal that went between Philipp Grubauer’s pads. Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog knocked the puck into the net, giving Pittsburgh its fourth straight win.