UNDATED (AP) — T.J. Oshie had a goal and two assists in Peter Laviolette’s debut as Washington’s coach and the Capitals opened the season with a 6-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night. Jakub Vrana stripped Eric Staal of the puck in front of Buffalo’s net and scored 46 seconds into the third period to preserve the win after the Capitals were in jeopardy of squandering a 4-1 lead. Vrana’s goal came 26 seconds after defenseman Jake McCabe cut Buffalo’s deficit to 4-3 by roofing a shot from the right point. John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and assist each and Brenden Dillon also scored for the Capitals.
In other ice action:
—Mark Stone scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Robin Lehner made 20 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 in the season opener for both teams. The Golden Knights improved to 9-2-2 against Anaheim since they entered the league in 2017. Jonathan Marchessault, Tomas Nosek, Max Pacioretty and Alex Tuch also scored for Vegas. Maxime Comtois scored Anaheim’s goals, both in the first 7:58 of the game, marking the fastest two goals by an NHL player to start a season in more than 15 years.
—Kirill Kaprizov scored his first NHL goal with 1:13 remaining in overtime and finished with three points as the Minnesota Wild rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in the season opener for both teams. The 23-year-old Russian scored on a breakaway, putting the puck past Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick. Kaprizov is the third Russian-born player to make his NHL debut with the Wild.
—Patrik Laine scored his second goal of the game in overtime to give the Winnipeg Jets a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night in the opener for both teams. Mark Schiefele and Kyle Connor also scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 shots. Elias Lindholm, Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau scored for Calgary. Markstrom made 30 saves in his Calgary debut after signing a six-year, $36 million deal in free agency.
—Nino Niederreiter scored early and Petr Mrazek had to make just 14 saves for a shutout, helping the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-0 in the season opener for both teams. Detroit goalie Thomas Greiss stopped 40 shots to give his offensively challenged team a chance for two-plus periods. The Red Wings played for the first time since they lost to Carolina at home on March 10, 2020. Carolina’s layoff was less than half as long because it swept the New York Rangers in the playoffs after the pause before being eliminated by Boston.
—Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist, then scored the only goal in the shootout as the Boston Bruins beat New Jersey 3-2 to spoil Lindy Ruff’s debut as Devils coach. Marchand scored a power-play goal and set up another by Nick Ritchie for the Bruins, who won the Presidents’ Trophy for having the best record in the NHL during the 2019-20 regular season. The teams play again in New Jersey on Saturday afternoon.
—Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal scored in the opening period and the New York Islanders beat the New York Rangers 4-0 at Madison Square Garden. Semyon Varlamov stopped 24 shots for his 28th career shutout and third with the Islanders. Defenseman Nick Leddy added two assists. Igor Shesterkin made 29 saves as the Rangers fell in the first of eight games between the rivals.
—Connor McDavid had a hat trick and an assist, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice and added an assist and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Thursday night. Leon Draisaitl, the NHL’s top scorer last season, had four assists to help the Oilers rebound from a 5-3 loss to the Canucks a night earlier in the opener for both teams. Mikko Koskinen made 38 saves for the Oilers. Nate Schmidt and Tyler Motte scored for Vancouver, and Thatcher Demko stopped 41 shots.
—Filip Forsberg scored the tiebreaking goal at 5:48 of the third period to lead the Nashville Predators over the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 in their season opener. Luke Kunin and Calle Jarnkrok also scored for the Predators, who have won 11 of their last 14 home openers. Juuse Saros made 29 saves. Boone Jenner had the goal for Columbus.
