Capitals Climb Above .500

The Washington Capitals have a winning record a month sooner than last season.

Recovering from their second consecutive awful start, the Capitals moved above .500 for the first time this season with Thursday night’s 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at Washington.

Last season, the Capitals didn’t have a winning record until Jan. 16, but they went on to win their first division title in 11 years. This season, the Capitals started even slower, losing to expansion and recent expansion teams such as the Columbus Blue Jackets, Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers. But they’ve rallied to win eight of 10 to move atop the weak Southeast Division.

“We don’t have to make quite as hard a push as we did last year,” said Olaf Kolzig, who made 28 saves. “It is definitely nice to look in the standings and be over .500. When teams lose to us, they lose to a team that’s over .500. It’s a little respectability.”

Sergei Gonchar and Peter Bondra scored second-period goals, and Kolzig improved to 8-1 over his last nine starts.

“It would be tough for anybody to out-ugly us,” Washington Coach Ron Wilson said. “We’re pretty good at it. We were patient and scored on our chances, and we needed Olie to make some big saves.”

Phoenix 3, Tampa Bay 2--Claude Lemieux, scoreless in two games since he signed with the Coyotes, had two goals and an assist in the third period at Phoenix.

Lemieux, whose 19 game-winning playoff goals are third in NHL history, got a standing ovation after firing the winner past Lightning goalie Kevin Weekes 6:24 into the third period.

The game was the first for the Coyotes since the NHL board of governors approved the sale of the franchise to a group led by Wayne Gretzky, Lemieux’s friend and neighbor in Thousand Oaks.

San Jose 2, Columbus 1--Owen Nolan’s second-period goal was the winner at San Jose.

The Pacific Division-leading Sharks, who have lost only three games at home, are 5-2-1 in their last eight overall.

Edmonton 6, Nashville 2--Doug Weight had a goal and two assists and Tommy Salo made 36 saves at Nashville as the Oilers ended a two-game losing streak.

Weight has points in nine of Edmonton’s last 11 games.

Ottawa 4, Calgary 2--Rookie Martin Havlat had the first two-goal game of his career at Kanata, Canada, as the Senators ended the Flames’ three-game winning streak.

The Senators won their third in a row and sixth in seven games to move into a tie with the idle Toronto Maple Leafs for the Eastern Conference lead. Both teams have 40 points in 30 games.

Around the League

Defenseman Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins will be sidelined three to five weeks after having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. . . . Montreal Canadien forward Gino Odjick was suspended for one game by the NHL for elbowing Phil Housley of the Calgary Flames in the head Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Flame forward Bill Lindsay was suspended for two games for elbowing Montreal’s Eric Weinrich in the head. . . . Edmonton Oiler defenseman Igor Ulanov was suspended for two games for cross-checking Brenden Morrow of the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.