Penguins deal 1st loss to Avalanche

Brandon Tanev scored a short-handed goal in overtime, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat visiting Colorado 3-2 on Wednesday night, the first loss of the season for the Avalanche.

Tanev, Pittsburgh’s biggest free-agent pickup in the offseason, 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 for the first time since an eight-game winning streak last season.

The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby continued a season-long, seven-game point streak, scoring his fourth goal of the season. Jake Guentzel added to his sixgame point streak with his fifth goal in four games. Matt Murray made 26 saves.

The Avalanche, the NHL’s last unbeaten team, looked to start the season with six straight wins for the first time since 2013-14. The best start in franchise history came during the 198586 season, when the team was located in Quebec and the Nordiques opened 7-0.

Nathan MacKinnon scored his third for Colorado, off an assist from Mikko Rantanen. Both have a six-game point streak to open the season. Matt Calvert also scored, and Grubauer stopped 30 shots.

MacKinnon tied the game at 2-2 at 2:56 of the third period. Alone in the slot, MacKinnon took a pass from Rantanen and flipped a wrist shot past Murray.

Pittsburgh played without five of its top nine forwards.

Jared McCann missed the game with a lower-body injury, forcing defenseman Juuso Riikola to play left wing on the team’s fourth line. Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bjugstad have been out for five games, while Alex Galchenyuk missed his fourth. All have lower-body injuries. Bryan Rust has been out since the start of the season with an upperbody injury.

BLUE JACKETS 3, STARS 2 >> Sonny Milano and Alexander Wennberg scored for the first time this season to lift Columbus over Dallas, its eighth straight win over the Stars. Dallas has lost four straight.

CAPITALS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3 >> John Carlson scored and had two assists, giving the defenseman an NHL-high 14 points, and Washington recorded its 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.