NHL roundup

BLUE JACKETS 3, STARS 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sonny Milano and Alexander Wennberg scored for the first time this season to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets over the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Wednesday. Columbus (3-3-0) 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, who have lost four straight. Zach Werenski got the scoring started at 7:42 of the first, while Wennberg made it 2-0 at 15:01. Miro Heiskanen cut the lead to 2-1, scoring his second goal of the year for the Stars on a delayed penalty. Milano gave Columbus insurance at 9:07 of the third with a highlight-reel goal, skating between two defenders and shooting from between his legs to go top shelf over Bishop. Jakob Lilja recorded his first NHL point with the primary assist.

CAPITALS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3

WASHINGTON — John Carlson scored and had two assists, giving the defenseman an NHL-high 14 points, and the Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 Wednesday night for their 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. Kasperi Kapanen scored short-handed and assisted on Ilya Mikheyev’s goal as Toronto grabbed an early 2-0 lead. John Tavares scored late in the third to cut the deficit to 4-3. Michael Hutchinson stopped 28 shots in his second start for the Maple Leafs, who lost on the road for the first time this season. Toronto still led after the first intermission, but that turned into a 4-2 deficit during a 68-second stretch of the second period.

PENGUINS 3, AVALANCHE 2, OT

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 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 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. 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 on Wednesday. All have lower-body injuries. Bryan Rust has been out since the start of the season with an upper-body injury. Calvert opened the scoring 3:16 in. He beat Murray with a shot to the glove side on a pass from Matt Nieto. Crosby evened the score at 17:22 of the first on an individual effort with the teams at 4-on-4. He chipped the puck past Erik Johnson along the boards, worked around Samuel Girard in the slot and backhanded a shot past a fallen Grubauer. Guentzel gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead at 15:30 of the second. He took a pass from Crosby, pulled the puck under Ryan Graves’ stick and flicked a wrist shot over Grubauer’s shoulder.

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