Short-handed Caps overcome Sabres

Jakub Vrana had a goal and an assist, Vitek Vanecek made 24 saves through overtime and the short-handed Washington Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in a shootout Friday night in their home opener.

Nicklas Backstrom and Nic Dowd also scored for the Capitals, who won the first of four games they must play without captain Alex Ovechkin, center Evgeny Kuznetsov, defenseman Dmitry Orlov and goaltender Ilya Samsonov because of pandemic protocols.

Their absences meant Vanecek getting a second consecutive start with recently signed 39-year-old Craig Anderson backing up and unheralded forward Brian Pinho making his regular-season NHL debut. Vanecek was perfect in the shootout to pick up his second victory of the season as defenseman John Carlson scored the shootout winner.

Buffalo rookie Dylan Cozens scored his first NHL goal on a top-shelf snipe past Vanecek in the second period. Eric Staal and Riley Sheahan each scored his first goal since joining the Sabres. Linus

Ullmark made 29 saves and was spotless in the shootout until Carlson beat him.

PENGUINS 4, RANGERS 3 >>

Kris Letang scored in the final round of a shootout to lift Pittsburgh over New York.

Letang ripped a backhand over Igor Shesterkin to put the Penguins in front. Tristan Jarry collected his first win of the season when he stuffed New York’s Tony DeAngelo moments later.

Bryan Rust and Jared McCann collected their first goals of the season for Pittsburgh, which has won three straight following an 0-2 start.

Teddy Blueger also scored, and Jarry finished with 31 saves.

MAPLE LEAFS 4, OILERS 2 >> John Tavares broke a tie on a power play midway through the third period to help Toronto beat Edmonton for a series split

Toronto played without Auston Matthews and Joe Thornton. Coach Sheldon Keefe said before the game Matthews is day-today with “upper-body soreness” following a 3-1 loss to the Oilers on Wednesday night, while Thornton will miss at least four weeks after fracturing a rib in that game.