BUFFALO Dallas Stars Hats Womens , N.Y. (AP) Alex Ovechkin can stop fretting about what the Washington Capitals captain described as the worst game of his career.He and the Capitals were much better in a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday, two days after a 7-1 meltdown at Chicago.After being held without a shot against Chicago, Ovechkin responded by scoring his NHL-leading 35th goal, and Washington reclaimed the top spot in the Metropolitan DivisionArticle continues below ...”Yeah, I think the last game I didn’t play my game. I think it was the worst play of my career by myself. I take the blame on it,” Ovechkin said. ”I think we understand the game in Chicago was just forget about it, you know. We moved forward. We got two points.”Capitals coach Barry Trotz noticed how much more involved Ovechkin was against Buffalo, particularly after a few early exchanges with Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.”Sometimes to wake up the bear up, you poke him a little, and he goes,” Trotz said of Ovechkin, who reached the 35-goal plateau for the 10th time in 13 NHL seasons.John Carlson had a goal and assist and Philipp Grubauer stopped 32 shots in a game Washington led 2-0 after two periods.Evgeny Kuznetsov sealed the victory by scoring into an open net with 26 seconds remaining to put Washington up 3-1, and the Capitals ended a four-game road trip at 2-1-1.Washington improved to 34-18-7 for 75 points, moving one ahead of the idle Pittsburgh Penguins Custom Dallas Stars Jerseys , while preparing for a showdown at home Tuesday against Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.Kyle Okposo spoiled Grubauer’s shutout bid by having Scott Wilson’s shot from the high slot deflect in off him with 7:18 remaining.Evander Kane closed the scoring with 4 seconds left in a final period in which Buffalo managed 17 of its 34 shots. Backup goalie Chad Johnson stopped 27 shots, starting in place of Robin Lehner, who was given a day off to rest a nagging lower-body injury.Though disappointed in the outcome, Sabres coach Phil Housley was more pleased with his team’s overall performance following a sloppy 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.”The result, definitely we don’t like. We want to win at home here,” Housley said. ”But against a really good hockey team, I can’t fault our guys for the effort.”The Capitals struck twice in the second period on goals determined by video reviews.Ovechkin scored 1:18 into the period by getting his stick up to bat down Christian Djoos‘ rising shot from the left point and bounce it inside the left post. The goal held up, with the NHL ruling Ovechkin’s stick was not above the crossbar.Carlson scored with 6:27 left in the second period during a scramble for the puck to the left of the Buffalo net. Carlson jammed the puck loose and into the crease, where it briefly rolled across the goal line an instant before Okposo kicked it out.Play continued until the next whistle with 6:13 left, when a review determined the puck went in.Johnson wasn’t sure how high Ovechkin’s stick was on the first goal, though he knew the second goal was in.”It’s just two lucky goals and that’s the game,” Johnson said. ”Obviously, we made a good push in the third. It just wasn’t enough.”Carlson said the Capitals can take some positives out of a trip in which they opened with a 4-3 overtime loss at Winnipeg and then beat Minnesota 5-2.”The stinker, everyone talks about it www.redwingsshoponline.com ,” Carlson said, referring the loss at Chicago. ”But we played a lot of good minutes of hockey on this trip.”NOTES: A few hours before the opening faceoff, the Capitals acquired D Michal Kempny in a trade with Chicago for a conditional 2018 third-round pick. … Trotz laughed in describing the phone conversation he had in welcoming Kempny to the team. ”I told him, we’re not as bad as he saw in Chicago,” Trotz said. … Buffalo recalled G Linus Ullmark from AHL Rochester to back up Johnson. Ullmark was returned to the minors immediately after the game.UP NEXTCapitals: At home against Tampa Bay.Sabres: Play their next two on the road, starting at the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.— GOTHENBURG, Sweden (AP) — Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac and the New Jersey Devils left the Edmonton Oilers behind in their season-opener, showing the form that helped them return to the playoffs last season.Palmieri and Zajac scored two goals each to lead the Devils to a 5-2 victory Saturday night in the NHL Global Series game at Scandinavium.“We feel like we have a good group, we have a strong culture,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. “We have an identity of how we want to play, the types of players we want, how we want to be off the ice. Those are really the things that matter. We want be a tough team to play against.”Stefan Noesen also scored, Miles Wood had two assists Detroit Red Wings T-Shirts Womens , and Keith Kinkaid made 17 saves.“We played a pretty good hockey game from the start,” Zajac said. “Not too many lapses, in our play throughout the game, our speed eventually kind of took over. We played the right way, especially with the lead. It’s early in the season and it’s a good sign.”Milan Lucic and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers.In the new season, Palmieri didn’t waste time.He picked up the puck near the boards in the offensive zone, moved unchecked toward the net from the left and beat Cam Talbot inside the far post on the first shot on goal in the opening minute.The Oilers came back on a power play, with captain Connor McDavid setting it up. The star center used his speed to carry the puck up ice from his own zone and skated around the goal to feed Lucic in front for a one-timer to tie it at 4:01.New Jersey took control early in the middle period with goals from Palmieri and Zajac in a 1:09 span. Palmieri scored on a power play for his second, and Zajac doubled the advantage after Talbot lost the puck behind the goal. The Devils dominated, outshooting the Oilers 10-4 in the period.“Obviously, we weren’t good enough, they were good,” McDavid said. “We did some good stuff, we did some bad stuff Detroit Red Wings Hoodies Womens , too.”Zajac added his second in the third period after a defensive blunder by defenseman Matt Benning, and before Draisaitl reduced the deficit to 4-2. Noesen finished it off with an empty-netter.“Give them credit, they pressured us in areas that give us a lot of headaches and we weren’t able to do the same for them,” Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. “We had a tough night, it was evident. Our puck movement, our puck support, our ability to play fast and clean was not very good.”It was the 23rd NHL regular-season game played in Europe, the 11th in Sweden and the first in Gothenburg.Prior to Saturday, the Devils completed a training camp in Switzerland where they played SC Bern in an exhibition game, while the Oilers came from practice in Germany, where they faced Cologne in an exhibition.The NHL will return to Europe next month. On Nov. 1-2, the Florida Panthers and the Winnipeg Jets will play two regular-season games in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.NOTES: It was only the second time in NHL history that the last two Hart Trophy winners faced each other in a season-opening game. It was also only the third time that the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner (McDavid) and reigning Hart Memorial Trophy winner (Taylor) played against each other in a season opener.UP NEXTOilers: At Boston on Thursday night.Devils: Host Stanley Cup champion Washington on Thursday night.
