Holtby backstops Caps to victory over Panthers

Troy Brouwer scored two goals and Braden Holtby stopped 27 shots and assisted on Brouwer's second goal and the Washington Capitals shut out the Florida Panthers 5-0 in the opener of a home-and-home series Saturday night.

Mathieu Perreault and Joel Ward each added a goal and an assist, and Alex Ovechkin also scored for Washington (3-8-1), which snapped a three-game losing streak.

It was the first time Washington has scored more than three goals in a game this season.

The two teams play at Florida (4-6-1) on Tuesday.

The Capitals took a 1-0 lead at 17:45 of the first period when the puck came out from behind the Panthers' net off the stick of Florida's Jerred Smithson to Capitals defenseman John Carlson in the right circle. Carlson's shot was deflected past goalie Jose Theodore by Brouwer in front of the net.

Washington's power play has continued its strong run.

With George Parros off for interference early in the second period, Holtby gathered in a Florida clearing attempt and sent a long pass to Brouwer just outside the Panthers blue line.

Brouwer skated in alone and from the right circle wristed a shot past Theodore into the upper left corner to make it 2-0 at 3:36 of the second period.

It was Brouwer's fifth goal of the season and Holtby's second career assist.

The Capitals have scored power-play goals in four consecutive games.

Later in the second, Joel Ward gave the Capitals their first three-goal lead of the season when he beat Theodore from the left circle after Perreault and Eric Fehr worked the puck out from along the boards. It was Ward's fifth goal of the season.

Ovechkin made it 4-0 at 3:49 of the third period when he scored off a faceoff. It was Ovechkin's fourth goal of the season, but first at even strength. Jason Chimera and Mike Ribeiro had the assists.

Perreault, who returned to the lineup Saturday night after being a healthy scratch the past five games, banged in the rebound of a Jeff Schultz shot at 9:28 to close the scoring.

Sabres 3, Islanders 2: Ryan Miller made 41 saves, and Alexander Sulzer scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period for Buffalo, which earned the victory over New York despite being badly outshot .

Thomas Vanek and Christian Ehrhoff added goals for the Sabres, who won their second straight game. Buffalo was outshot 43-15 by the Islanders, who dropped their fourth straight.

John Tavares and Colin McDonald scored for New York, and Brian Strait had two assists. Evgeni Nabokov made 12 saves for the Islanders, who erased a pair of one-goal deficits but couldn't overcome a third even after Tavares was awarded a penalty shot with 3:53 remaining.

Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 0: James Reimer made 37 saves and Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists for Toronto.

Leo Komarov added his first NHL goal 59 seconds into the game.

Tyler Bozak scored later in the first period, James van Riemsdyk and Kessel added second-period goals.

Korbinian Holzer and Dion Phaneuf scored in the third for Toronto.

Red Wings 2, Oilers 1: Niklas Kronwall's third-period goal broke a tie, and Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and an assist in Detroit's win.

Henrik Zetterberg had two assists, and Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for Detroit (6-4-1).

Justin Schultz scored the lone goal for Edmonton (4-4-3), and 40-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 28 shots in his first game of the season

Coyotes 1, Sharks 0: Mike Smith made 33 saves through overtime and then turned aside two more shots in the shootout to carry Phoenix over San Jose.

The only offense in the entire game was provided by Phoenix's Mikkel Boedker and Radium Vrbata, who both netted shootout goals against Sharks goalie Antii Niemi.

Smith, who recorded his fourth shutout of the season, made several acrobatic saves, including one in the shootout. Smith has 21 career NHL shutouts.

Wild 2, Predators 1: Devin Setoguchi's power-play goal at 4:21 of overtime gave Minnesota the win and snapped the Wild's three-game losing streak.

Setoguchi took a pass from Mikko Koivu and fired a shot past Chris Mason for his first goal of the season and the Wild's 23rd in 11 games.

Cal Clutterbuck also scored, and Niklas Backstrom stopped 25 shots for Minnesota.

Jets 1, Senators: Al Montoya made 33 saves, and Alex Ponikarovsky scored the only goal in Winnipeg's win over Ottawa.

Ponikarovsky broke the scoreless deadlock 5:57 into the third period. The Senators had no answer against Montoya, who posted his first shutout of the season and third of his NHL career. n

Former Hershey goalie stops 27 shots to record shutout vs. Florida.