WASHINGTON — Braden Holtby stopped 28 shots, Alex Ovechkin scored his seventh goal and the Washington Capitals handed the Boston Bruins their first road loss of the season, 4-1 on Thursday night.
John Carlson had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, whose 9-3-0 record matches the best start in franchise history.
Holtby notched shutouts in all three games between the teams last season. A power-play goal by Jimmy Hayes in the first period ended the streak, but that would be the extent of the offense from a team that came in with an NHL-best 3.82 goals per game average.
Ovechkin tied the game at 1 with the 482nd goal of his career, one short of Sergei Federov for most among Russian-born players in NHL history.
Boston was the league’s last unbeaten team on the road at 5-0-0.
The Capitals went up 2-1 at 4:10 of the second period when Dimitry Orlov fired a shot from the right point that hit the leg of teammate Brooks Laich and dribbled past goaltender Tuukka Rask.
Carlson gave Washington a two-goal cushion at 7:21 of the period, scoring off a pass from Nicklas Backstrom with two Bruins in the penalty box. Backstrom has nine points in nine games this season and 28 points in 26 career games against Boston.
Holtby turned aside all seven Boston shots in the third period, and Karl Alzner clinched it with an empty net goal at 18:10.
Early on, the Bruins dominated. Boston took the first four shots and took a lead against the Capitals for the first time since March 2014.
After Washington’s Michael Latta was sent off the ice for a tripping penalty, he vigorously protested. The Bruins used a fortunate bounce to end their scoring drought against Holtby at 199 minutes, 30 seconds.
A centering pass from Brett Connolly ricocheted high off the stick of Washington defenseman Matt Niskanen, hit Hayes in the chest and bounced into the net.
Ovechkin tied it at 17:27, firing home a rebound while falling to his knees. Carlson picked up his 200th career point on the play.
Notes: Ovechkin has a point (7 goals, 7 assists) in 10 of 11 games this season. … Laich played in his 694th game with the Capitals, passing Steve Konowalchuk for ninth place on the team list. … Boston’s Kevan Miller played in his 100th career game. … Boston coach Claude Julien and Capitals coach Barry Trotz will serve as assistants for Team Canada at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. … It was the first of three games in four nights for the Bruins, who face Montreal on Saturday and the Islanders on Sunday.
Lightning 4, Sabres 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov scored in the first period and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat Buffalo 4-1 on Thursday night for their seventh straight win over the Sabres.
Tampa Bay’s early barrage chased goaltender Linus Ullmark, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for the Lightning. Victor Hedman added an empty-net goal.
The Lightning had lost five of their previous six games, and this was their first multi-goal victory since Oct. 12. Tampa Bay is 3-0 against Buffalo this season.
Rookie star Jack Eichel scored his fifth goal of the season for Buffalo.
Stamkos scored 5:55 into the game, with Johnson netting one shortly after the midpoint of the first and Kucherov scoring with 1:40 remaining.
Chad Johnson replaced Ullmark and stopped all 10 shots he faced.
Canadiens 4, Islanders 1
MONTREAL — David Desharnais and Brendan Gallagher scored 1:33 apart in the third period to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Dale Weise and Tomas Plekanec also scored for Montreal. The Canadiens are 3-0-1 since Mike Condon replaced injured Carey Price as the starting goaltender and 12-2-1 overall.
Kyle Okposo scored and the Islanders lost for the fourth time in five games, including two overtime defeats.
Montreal had a 24-18 shot advantage and beat former Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak for only the second time in six meetings.
Desharnais put Montreal up 2-1 on a 2-on-1 with Tomas Fleishmann 6:22 into the third. The rush was created after the puck glanced off linesman Michael Cormier in the neutral zone.
Gallagher then scored from the doorstep
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