The Capitals entered with the best record in the NHL and Carolina had the worst. But the Hurricanes converted two of their first three shots to take a 2-0 lead with 14 minutes elapsed.

Semin tied it by scoring twice in the second period, and Tomas Fleischmann gave Washington its first lead with 17:08 remaining in regulation, hammering home a pass from Mathieu Perreault during a delayed penalty call.

Carolina’s Tim Gleason scored a shorthanded goal with 6:30 left. Gleason, who had his face bloodied by a puck earlier in the period, stole the puck in his own end and skated in on a breakaway.

In overtime, Green ended it with a wrist shot from between the circles.

Jiri Tlusty and Eric Staal also scored for the Hurricanes, and Cam Ward made 36 saves. But it wasn’t enough to prevent Carolina from sinking to 1-12-3 on the road.

Tlusty put the Hurricanes up, 1-0, at 2:01 of the first period with his first goal since March 29, 2008, with Toronto. Tlusty was making his Carolina debut after being called up from Albany of the AHL yesterday.

Staal scored at 13:56, stuffing the puck past Jose Theodore after taking a pass from Patrick Dwyer, who came from Albany with Tlusty.

After outshooting Carolina, 14-4, in the first period, the Capitals needed more than 7 1/2 minutes to get their first shot on goal in the second period.

Stars 3, Sharks 2 - Matt Niskanen scored in the 11th round of the shootout as visiting Dallas overcame a stellar performance by San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov to hand the Sharks their fourth straight loss.

Niskanen was robbed in overtime when Dan Boyle swept his shot away after it trickled past Nabokov. Boyle wasn’t there to help Nabokov the next time as Niskanen scored on the first shootout attempt of his career. Nabokov had stopped the previous eight chances by Dallas after making 42 saves before the shootout.

Marty Turco stopped 10 of 11 attempts in the shootout, ending the game when he turned aside Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Turco had 33 saves, getting help in overtime when Joe Pavelski’s shot hit the post.

The only other Dallas player to score in the shootout was Brad Richards, who beat Nabokov in the second round. Richards also scored the tying goal midway through the third period for the Stars when he flicked a shot over Nabokov.

The skid is the longest at home for the Sharks since losing five in a row in 2007-08. The only solace for San Jose is three of the games went to overtime, giving them five points on a five-game homestand.

Rob Blake scored his second goal of the season the day after his 40th birthday and Dany Heatley tied Patrick Marleau for the team lead with his 20th goal for San Jose.

Panthers 4, Devils 2 - Scott Clemmensen made 26 saves to beat his former teammates, Michael Frolik scored twice, and Florida ended a four-game losing streak with a victory over New Jersey in Newark.

Sabres 2, Blackhawks 1 - Patrick Lalime made 39 saves, and Thomas Vanek and Clarke MacArthur scored in host Buffalo’s victory over Chicago.

Lalime, making just his third start of the season in favor of Ryan Miller, stopped 17 shots in the first period, and extended Buffalo’s shutout sequence to 139 minutes 51 seconds before Patrick Sharp tapped in Patrick Kane’s pass at the top of the crease 30 seconds into the third period to make it 2-1.

Oilers 5, Blues 3 - Gilbert Brule scored twice and Dustin Penner had a goal and three assists as Edmonton won in St. Louis.

Jeff Deslauriers made 30 saves to help the Oilers win five straight road games for the first time in franchise history.

Red Wings 3, Ducks 2 - Todd Bertuzzi tied it midway through the third period and scored a power-play goal 1:07 into overtime to give host Detroit a comeback win over Anaheim.

Avalanche 2, Lightning 1 - Wojtek Wolski scored the only goal in a shootout, Craig Anderson stopped all three Tampa Bay shots and the Colorado won in Denver.

Wild 2, Flames 1 - Martin Havlat scored at 3:15 of overtime to give visiting Minnesota the victory.