View photosMoreWashington (AFP) - Phil Kessel scored the decisive shootout goal as the reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Washington Capitals 3-2 to open the NHL season.
Kessel fired off the crossbar and in, and Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made a save on Alex Ovechkin to seal the victory.
Fleury, who finished the night with 39 saves, had stopped Evgeny Kuznetsov but allowed Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie to score in the decider.
"He's one of best goalies in the league for a reason -- sometimes you've got to rely on that goalie," Penguins forward Conor Sheary said of Fleury. "We relied on Flower for some big saves tonight."
Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang also scored in the shootout for the Penguins, who raised their Stanley Cup banner prior to the contest.
Andre Burakovsky scored twice for the Capitals, but Fleury's 39 saves included six in overtime as he kept the extra period alive.
The Penguins took a 2-1 lead into the third period before Burakovsky scored his second of the game, taking advantage of an Olli Maatta giveaway to beat Fleury.
Backstrom set up both Burakovsky goals, with the first coming less than a minute into the game.
With Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby sidelined by a concussion diagnosed four days earlier, Malkin stepped up for the Penguins.
The score tied at 1-1 late in the second period when Sheary stole the puck from right wing Oshie at the blue line and threw it ahead to Malkin.
He shifted the puck from his forehand to his backhand to slip it under Capitals goalie Braden Holtby at 18:52, his 65th goal in 112 career games without Crosby.
Malkin also assisted on Patric Hornqvist's game-tying goal at 8:47 of the second.
Hornqvist tapped defenseman Letang's shot from a couple of feet inside the blue line that sailed past three Capitals players and Holtby for a goal that was upheld on video review even though Holtby thought Hornqvist's stick was above the crossbar.
"I thought it was pretty clear," Holtby said. "It's tough when you play a team like Pittsburgh and you get that against you because you know they're not going to give you too much after that. It's going to be a tight game. It was tough."
Malkin was also involved in a fight after right wing Justin Williams grabbed him by the neck and threw him hard to the ice along the rear boards with four seconds remaining in the second period.
Williams was given only a two-minute roughing penalty.
- Sabres' Kane injured -
The Capitals remained in their dressing room during the Penguins' pre-game banner-raising ceremony, during which Crosby was in uniform on the ice even though he wasn't cleared to play.
But the festive atmosphere evaporated when Burakovsky scored 59 seconds into the first period.
By the end of the night, however, the Caps were in a familiar situation -- their 2015-16 season ended in the same arena with an overtime defeat in game six of the NHL Eastern Conference semi-finals.
The Penguins game highlighted the second night of action in the new season.
It was a rough start for the Sabres in Buffalo, where the hosts fell 4-1 to the revamped Montreal Canadiens and lost left winger Evander Kane to injury mid-game.
Kane crashed hard into the boards in the second period and lay on the ice for several minutes before he was helped off by teammates and sent to the hospital.
"They're checking for a lot of things internally," Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. "I don't have more than that."
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