Danny Briere pounced on a loose puck and knocked in the rebound in the fourth minute of overtime to keep the Philadelphia Flyers' perfect record intact with a 6-5 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday. Mike Richards got the better of Alex Ovechkin with his second career hat-trick to help the Flyers improve to 3-0 for the first time since the 1998-99 season. Ovechkin scored twice and has five goals already on the season. Alexander Semin scored twice for the Capitals. Matt Carle had four assists for the Flyers.
At Toronto, Daniel Alfredsson's second-period goal from a penalty shot gave the Ottawa Senators a 2-1 victory over the Maple Leafs. The Senators' captain used a nifty backhand deke against Swedish countryman Jonas Gustavsson to lift his team to their first win of the season. Andrew Brunette's power-play goal in overtime lifted the Minnesota Wild to a thrilling 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Trailing 3-0 with less than 14 minutes to play in the third, the Wild got goals from Mikko Koivu, Petr Sykora and Eric Belanger to send the game to overtime. Staffan Kronwall's first NHL goal lifted the unbeaten Calgary Flames to a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Kronwall's deciding goal was scored 2:16 into the third period when he fired a slap shot through a crowd and past goalie Jaroslav Halak.
Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin picked up his 300th career victory as the Edmonton Oilers won their first game of the season with a 5-4 shoot-out win over the Dallas Stars. Ales Hemsky scored the winner. In yet another hard-fought thriller, Tuomo Ruutu scored the decider for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 2-1 overtime victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. * With agencies
