Braden Holtby made 31 saves and Alex Ovechkin scored to lead the Washington Capitals over the Buffalo Sabres 2-0 on Monday night for their eighth straight win.
Ovechkin scored 19 seconds into the second period, while Jay Beagle scored about 12 minutes later to help the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals improve to 27-6-2, the best start in franchise history.
Washington have earned a point in 15 of their past 16 games and trail the Dallas Stars by one point for the NHL lead.
Photo: AP
Holtby got his 22nd career shutout and second this season. He leads the NHL with 23 victories and is 15-0-1 in his past 17 games.
Linus Ullmark made 24 saves for the Sabres.
Sabres forward Evander Kane played for the first time since the Buffalo News reported that Buffalo police were investigating a sex crime allegation against him.
AVALANCHE 6, SHARKS 3
In San Jose, California, Nathan MacKinnon scored twice on power plays and added an empty-net goal, while Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau also scored on power plays as Colorado ended a 13-game losing streak in San Jose.
Matt Duchene also scored, and the Avalanche won their fourth straight on the road to improve to 6-1-1 over their past eight games.
Patrick Marleau, Melker Karlsson and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks. San Jose own the worst home record in the league at 4-10 and have lost four straight at home and seven of eight.
Colorado’s Calvin Pickard stopped 35 shots for his first decision of the season and his first win in more than a year. Martin Jones saved 20 of 25 for the Sharks.
CANADIENS 4, LIGHTNING 3, SO
In Tampa, Florida, Max Pacioretty won it in the third round of a shootout as Montreal beat Tampa Bay to end a six-game losing streak.
Brian Flynn also scored in the shootout for Montreal. Valtteri Filppula had a shootout score for Tampa Bay.
The Canadiens got goals from Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk and Dale Weise.
Nikita Kucherov, Jason Garrison and Ryan Callahan scored for the Lightning, who are 2-1-1 on a six-game homestand. Tampa Bay centers Tyler Johnson and Brian Boyle both returned after being out with upper-body injuries.
Mike Condon made 36 saves through overtime for Montreal, while Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop stopped 31 shots.
KINGS 5, CANUCKS 0
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Tyler Toffoli scored three goals, Jonathan Quick got the 40th shutout of his NHL career as Los Angeles beat Vancouver.
The Kings won their second straight and snapped Vancouver’s two-game win streak. The Canucks have yet to win three games in a row this season.
Quick made 27 saves in his second shutout this season and was rarely tested. The Kings outshot the Canucks 38-27, leading 1-0 after one period and 3-0 after two.
Toffoli finished his hat trick on a power play with 7 minutes, 4 seconds left. Derek Forbort got his first NHL goal and Brayden McNabb also scored. Anze Kopitar had four assists.
Vancouver were shut out for the fourth time in their past 11 games.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Wild 3, Red Wings 1
‧ Predators 5, Rangers 3
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