Once Scott Gomez found the back of the net, the New York Rangers’ sputtering power play piled up goals in a hurry.
Gomez scored the first of New York’s three man-advantage goals in the first period – all set up in part by captain Jaromir Jagr – and the Rangers went on to hand the Washington Capitals their first loss of the season, 3-1 Friday night.
In what looked like a special teams mismatch, the Rangers brought in an anemic power-play unit that had failed in all 15 chances over the season’s first three games. Washington hadn’t allowed a power-play goal in 12 short-handed situations while jumping to a 3-0 start.
That all changed quickly as Gomez, Martin Straka and defenseman Michal Rozsival connected in the first period when the Rangers enjoyed six power-play chances.
“We knew it was going to happen,” Gomez said. “We just wanted to go more to the net. We’ve had chances on the power play, and tonight it finally clicked.”
In other NHL games, it was: Chicago 3, Detroit 2; Boston 8, Los Angeles 6; Calgary 3, Dallas 2 in overtime; St. Louis 4, Colorado 1 and Vancouver 5, Edmonton 2.
At Madison Square Garden, Alex Ovechkin answered Gomez’s tally with his 100th career goal in just 167 NHL games. That briefly tied it for the Capitals before Straka and Rozsival put New York back in control during a period in which the Rangers outshot Washington 20-7.
Henrik Lundqvist was steady while seeing 25 shots, 14 through two periods, and helped the Rangers (2-2) snap a two-game losing skid.
Olie Kolzig made 38 saves for the Capitals.
Blackhawks 3, Red Wings 2
Robert Lang scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period against his former team, helping the Blackhawks get the road win.
Brent Seabrook had a goal and an assist, and Patrick Sharp scored for Chicago. Nikolai Khabibulin made 32 saves.
Henrik Zetterberg and Kris Draper scored for Detroit, which lost in regulation for the first time this season.
Bruins 8, Kings 6
At Los Angeles, Phil Kessel scored three goals for his first career hat trick and the Bruins beat the Kings in the only meeting between the teams this season.
Kessel also had an assist and Marc Savard scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period. Savard also had three assists.
Aaron Ward also scored for Boston, Milan Lucic got his first NHL goal and Glen Murray added a power-play goal before setting up the game-winner.
Anze Kopitar scored a pair of power-play goals for Los Angeles. Brad Stuart also connected with the man advantage, Michael Cammalleri got his fifth goal in five games and Brady Murray recorded first NHL goal.
Blues 4, Avalanche 1
At St. Louis, Dan Hinote had two goals in the third period and Manny Legace made 24 saves to improve his career mark against the Avalanche to 12-1.
Brad Boyes picked up his fourth goal for the Blues, who extended their winning streak to three games and are 3-1-0 for the first time since 1997-98.
Paul Stastny scored his fifth goal for the Avalanche.
Flames 3, Stars 2, OT
At Dallas, Matthew Lombardi scored twice, including the overtime winner, and Calgary rallied for its first victory of the season.
Jerome Iginla also scored for the Flames, and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 24 shots.
Mike Modano and Niklas Hagman had the goals for the Stars. Modano moved within four points of matching Phil Housley’s record for U.S.-born players.
Canucks 5, Oilers 2
At Edmonton, Alberta, Alex Burrows scored a short-handed goal in the second period and Vancouver rebounded from a poor outing two days earlier with a victory over the Oilers.
Henrik Sedin, Rick Rypien, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison also scored for the Canucks, who were called out by general manager Dave Nonis for their poor play following an 8-2 loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Sheldon Souray and Raffi Torres had the goals for the Oilers, who have lost three straight after opening the season with two wins.
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