PITTSBURGH — Brandon Tanev scored a short-handed goal in overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat 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.
The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby continued a season-long, seven-game point streak, scoring his fourth goal of the season. Jake Guentzel added to his six-game 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 1985-86 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.
BLUE JACKETS 3, STARS 2: Sonny Milano and Alexander Wennberg scored for the first time this season to lift host Columbus over Dallas.
Columbus (3-3) won back-to-back games and pulled to .500 with its eighth consecutive victory over the Stars (1-6-1). Joonis Korpisalo turned away 30 shots to net his third win.
Ben Bishop made 32 saves for Dallas, which 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 beat Toronto for 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 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.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
