Norris scores twice, Sens beat Capitals
OTTAWA, ONTARIO >> Josh Norris scored a pair of goals in his season debut Wednesday night, leading the Ottawa Senators to a 6-1 win over the Washington Capitals.
Norris had missed the first three games of the regular season and didn’t play in the preseason, but looked solid in his return. The Senators center was coming off shoulder surgery last January.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Artem Zub, Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson also scored for the Senators (3-1-0), who picked up their third straight win. Anton Forsberg made 23 saves.
The Capitals (1-2-0), playing their first road game of the season, often dominated play in the opening period but the Senators capitalized on their chances and some poor defensive coverage.
John Carlson scored the Capitals’ lone goal. Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 shots.
Trailing 5-1 in the third, the Capitals managed just three shots on goal while Ottawa extended its lead on a laser of a shot from Sanderson.
Ottawa scored three unanswered goals in the second to take that 5-1 lead and never looked back.
Norris picked up his second by beating Kuemper glove side two minutes into the second period. Zub scored with a shot from the blue line three minutes later.
Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev makes a stop against the Seattle Kraken during the first period Tuesday in Seattle. season. Eberle delivered a controversial hit on Andrew Cogliano in that series, and the result was two fractures in his neck.
O’connor also scored shorthanded to give the Avs a 2-1 lead. He won a long race to the puck, balanced himself with one hand on his stick and then snapped a shot past Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer.
Solid in net
Colorado’s best player so far this season is … Georgiev? The big guns have all played very well, but the Avs’ goaltender has been fantastic. He was a breakout star at the position last season, and is already off to an excellent start in year two as a no-doubt No. 1 guy.
He provided the definition of “keep the team in the game” goaltending while the guys in front of him were sloppy early on. His saves on Grade-a chances for Adam Larsson and Yanni Gourde late in the second period preserved a 2-1 lead.
Given the Avs’ favorable logistics between now and Thanksgiving, Georgiev could play a lot of games. If he keeps this level of play
Washington Capitals goaltender Darcy Kuemper (35) watches the puck as Ottawa Senators right wing Drake Batherson (19) passes it across the crease, leading to a goal by center Josh Norris (9) during first period in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday.
Giroux picked up his first of the season after some poor coverage by the Capitals allowed him to drive to the net uncontested for an easy tap-in.
Tarasenko opened the scoring four minutes in after taking a pass from Ridly Greig to beat Kuemper, but it was Norris’ power-play goal midway through the period that brought the crowd to its feet.
RED WINGS 6, PENGUINS 3
Andrew Copp and Alex Debrincat each scored twice, Ville Husso made 30 saves and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Copp scored in a threegoal second period to give Detroit a 4-1 lead, but Pittsburgh pulled within a goal midway through the third.
Seattle Kraken right wing Jordan Eberle (7) and Colorado Avalanche right wing Logan O’connor (25) fight during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, in Seattle.
up, Colorado is going to win most of them. And he’s going to be firmly among the early-season Vezina Trophy contenders.
Penalty kill plugs along
The penalty kill, with a strong assist from Georgiev, is off to a great start. The Avalanche is obviously going to score a lot and control play at even strength most nights. Penalty killing has been relatively mediocre in recent seasons.
Josh Manson told The Denver Post during the preseason the PK’S goal was simple — set the standard as high as the power play
Copp sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 1:32 to go. Debrincat also took advantage of the Penguins pulling their goaltender to add an extra skater, restoring the Red Wings’ three-goal lead 21 seconds later.
Ben Chiarot, David Perron and Copp scored in the second period.
Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins their only lead in the opening minute, when he extended his goals streak to three games. Tristan Jarry stopped 23 shots.
Erik Karlsson cut Pittsburgh’s deficit to two goals early in the third period. Shortly thereafter, Copp was given a penalty shot and he couldn’t get it past Jarry.
Husso kept the two-goal lead midway through the third by stopping shots by
does. That means shooting for a top-five finish.
Given the way Seattle controlled this game at times, yielding a powerplay goal would have been a huge boost for the Kraken with their amped-up fans in the home opener. The Avs are 13-for-13 to start the year on the kill, and have a shorthanded goal as a bonus.
Switching things up
Jared Bednar made one tweak to the lineup before the game, flipping Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin on the top two lines. He hinted at practice Monday that changes would be coming at some point, in
Rickard Rakell and Karlsson.
The Red Wings needed the cushion because Bryan Rust redirected a shot to make it 4-3 with 6:57 left.
Detroit has won three in a row since losing the opener by a goal at New Jersey. Pittsburgh had won two straight games since dropping its opening game by two goals against Chicago.
part because he wants to see everyone in the topnine forward group get familiar with each other.
The new-look second line had a nice game territorially, though Drouin missed a golden chance to extend the lead early in the third period. The old-look second line actually produced the first goal. Nichushkin was out with Artturi Lehkonen and Ryan Johansen during the first spin through the lineup after a penalty ended, and his hard work in the slot helped open up some space for Lehkonen to score Colorado’s first goal. Nichushkin also added an empty-net goal to seal the victory.
Hallowed company
Cale Makar earned the primary assist on O’connor’s goal. It was the 250th point of his career. He became the fastest defenseman to reach 250 points in NHL history — doing it in 241 games was quicker than the previous record holder, Bobby Orr, but six games.
The rest of the top six includes Denis Potvin, Brian Leetch, Paul Coffey and Ray Bouqrue. That’s essentially the five best offensive defensemen in league history … just behind Makar. Pretty nice company to keep.
Las Vegas Aces’ Kelsey Plum (10) shoots over New York Liberty’s Courtney Vandersloot (22) during the first half in Game 4of the WNBA basketball final playoff series on Wednesday in New York.