Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal in nearly seven months and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 shots for his 39th career shutout as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 2-0 Thursday night. Rookie Daniel Sprong picked up the first goal of his career for Pittsburgh, which won for the first time this season. Craig Anderson made 34 saves for Ottawa but the Senators failed to muster significant momentum a night after dropping seven goals on Columbus. Ottawa went 0 for 3 on the power play and rarely tested Fleury over the final two periods as the Senators lost on the road for the first time in four tries. The Penguins came in scuffling after the franchise's worst start in a decade, managing all of three goals during an 0-3 stretch that left their stars frustrated and head coach Mike Johnston imploring them — again — to shoot the puck more often. For a night anyway, the message appeared to get through. Fresh after being given a day off and facing a team that must have gotten weary celebrating so often during a 7-3 dismantling of Columbus on Wednesday, Pittsburgh wasted little time, playing with the kind of tempo it lacked for much of the first week of the season. Capitals 4, Blackhawks 1 John Carlson and T.J. Oshie each had a goal and an assist, goaltender Braden Holtby made 26 saves as the Washington Capitals defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1. It was Oshie's first goal as a member of the Capitals. Matt Niskanen's third-period tally put Washington up 3-0 and Alex Ovechkin, who was benched on Tuesday after sleeping in and missing the morning skate, closed out the scoring when he converted a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov with 5:42 left. Islanders 4, Predators 3 Left winger Nikolay Kulemin scored the go-ahead goal 6:42 into the third period as the New York Islanders rallied with four consecutive goals to beat the Nashville Predators. Center Anders Lee and right winger Kyle Okposo scored in the second period for the Islanders, who fell behind 2-0 early in the period. Kulemin's rebound of a shot by center Brock Nelson gave the Islanders the lead before John Tavares added the fourth goal. Stars 5, Lightning 3 The Stars saw a three-goal lead cut to one in a two-minute span of the third period, but center Jason Spezza's goal two minutes later helped Dallas pull out a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dallas trailed early but scored four successive goals. Panthers 3, Sabres 2 Veteran right winger Jaromir Jagr scored two first-period goals to lead the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. Both Jagr, who added an assist in the third period, and goaltender Roberto Luongo reached career milestones. Luongo earned his 403rd career win, tying Grant Fuhr for ninth place on the NHL list, while Jagr scored his 205th power play goal, tying Joe Sakic for 13th on the all time list. Canadiens 3, Rangers 0 Tomas Fleischmann, Dale Weise and Tomas Plekanec all scored for the Canadiens to give Montreal a 3-0 win over the New York Rangers. Goaltender Carey Price made 25 saves for Montreal, earning his 35th career shutout and claiming possession of fourth place on the Canadiens' all-time list. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 29 shots for the Rangers. Blues 4, Oilers 2 The St. Louis Blues spoiled the Oilers home opener with a 4-2 win to continue their run of dominance against Edmonton. Vladimir Tarasenko, Jori Lehtera, Paul Stastny and Alexander Steen scored for St. Louis, while Taylor Hall and Lauri Korpikoski scored for Edmonton. Wild 4, Coyotes 3 Minnesota scored two even-strength goals, a power-play goal and a short-handed goal to improve to 3-0-0 for the first time since 2008-09 with a 4-3 win over the Coyotes. Arizona (3-1-0) were off to their best start since 2003-04. Minnesota's best start came in 2006-07, when they won their first six games. — Agencies
