Capitals 5, Devils 2

Blue Jackets 3, Rangers 1

Artemi Panarin and Seth Jones scored to rally Columbus to a win over New York on Friday night. Zach Werenski had two assists and Lukas Sedlak added an empty-net goal for Columbus. Panarin, acquired from Chicago in the offseason, got his first goal with the Blue Jackets. He snaked through the defense and beat goaltender Henrik Lundqvist between the pads 7:25 into the third for a 2-1 lead. He's tied for the team lead with four points. Sergei Bobrovsky had 37 saves for Columbus, and Lundqvist stopped 40 shots. Kevin Hayes scored for New York with 5:25 left in the first period. Hayes intercepted Jones' drop pass and charged on a breakaway, beating Bobrovsky on his glove side. Jones made amends with 45 seconds left in the second by snapping a shot from the left wall that hit the Rangers' Mika Zibanejad in the shin. Lundqvist was caught lunging the other way, and the deflected shot bounced in off the post to make it 1-1. The Blue Jackets opened the third with an 11-0 shot advantage in the first six minutes but couldn't solve Lundqvist until Panarin broke the tie. Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and three assists and Washington knocked surprising New Jersey from the unbeaten ranks. T.J. Oshie had two goals and an assist, and Alex Ovechkin scored his ninth of the season and set up Backstrom's power-play tally to help Washington hand New Jersey its first loss in four games. Jacub Vrana also scored for the Capitals, and Braden Holtby had 21 saves. Washington is 8-0-1 in its last nine games against New Jersey. Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri scored for the Devils, who had surprised many with their quick start after finishing in the basement in the Eastern Conference last season. Cory Schneider made 23 saves, getting beat three times on the power play. The Capitals clearly were the better team in this one. They forechecked well and bottled up the Devils in the neutral zone, limiting an offense that had 16 goals in its first three games. Backstrom, who left the pregame skate early and didn't return, intercepted a puck in the New Jersey zone after it came off defenseman John Moore's stick. Backstrom found Oshie coming down the middle for his fourth goal of the season with 5:11 left in the first period. Ovechkin, who had seven goals in his first two games, scored from his office in the left circle on a power play after being set up by Backstrom 8:01 into the second period. Hall scored his first of the season on a power play with 3:32 left in the second, but Vrana pushed the lead back to two goals, tipping a shot by former Devil Devante Smith-Pelly past Schneider with a minute left in the period. Palmieri cut it to 3-2 with a backhander in close 53 seconds into the final period. However, Pavel Zacha took a four-minute high-sticking penalty for cutting Lars Eller at 4:10. Oshie and Backstrom scored with the extra man to put the game out of reach.