Ken Klee

WASHINGTON - The Minnesota Wild doesn't have any big-name stars, but it got the job done last night against the Washington Capitals, who are struggling to break out of a goal-scoring drought that has haunted them throughout the early part of this season. Riding goals by Antti Laaksonen, Stephane Veilleux, Andrew Brunette and Pascal Dupuis, the Wild held off Washington, 4-3, before 12,848 at MCI Center. It was the Wild's 12th victory and continued its fine start, in which it has built a 12-5-4 record, one of the best in the Western Conference.

WASHINGTON - Center Dainius Zubrus returned to the Washington Capitals' lineup last night after a month's absence to jump-start the team's offense and set the tone for a 4-3 victory over the struggling Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres, 8-22-5-1, came into the game with the league's worst record. But, thanks to two lucky bounces that resulted in Buffalo goals, the Caps still needed goals from Zubrus, Mike Grier, Jaromir Jagr and a game-winner from rookie Ivan Ciernik with 8:24 to play to put away the battling Sabres.

PITTSBURGH -- The battered and bruised Washington Capitals lost a game, an unbeaten streak and possibly two more players to injury last night, as the Pittsburgh Penguins scored twice in the final two minutes for a 4-2 victory.The Caps had rallied twice in the second period to gain a 2-2 tie, but with 1: 55 left in the third, Mario Lemieux was left wide-open near the far post for an easy tap-in and the game-winner. Chris Tamer scored into an empty net in the final minute.The loss ended Washington's longest unbeaten string of the season at seven games (4-0-3)

LANDOVER -- It's anyone's guess what was included in the game plan the Hartford Whalers carried into their meeting with the Washington Capitals last night.One thing is certain: It had little if anything to do with playing hockey.Seemingly content to rough it up any time they got the chance, the Whalers fell easy prey to the Caps, 3-0, once Washington decided not to mirror Hartford's ragged play.It was Keith Jones' kind of game, lots of action in front of the goal, and the hard-working right wing took full advantage by scoring the Caps' first and third goals.

WASHINGTON -- Washington Capitals coach Ron Wilson has tried a little bit of everything to jump-start his hockey team in this disappointing, injury-riddled season. Last night, Wilson again pulled out the unusual three-defensemen, two-forward lineup, hoping to repeat the team's success with it against the St. Louis Blues, who had scored just three times in their previous three games, all losses. But the Blues scored the first goal and by the end of the second period were running away for a 4-1 victory, leaving the Caps' defense-oriented lineup pummeled.

Skipjacks goalkeeper Duane Derksen couldn't have picked a better time to have a spectacular game.In yesterday's 3-1 win over Southern Division foe Rochester, Derksen made 32 saves on 33 shots in his first full game in two weeks.Baltimore coach Barry Trotz said he hopes that, if his team can win their next three games (Hershey, Hamilton and Halifax), the Skipjacks (24-33-12) can earn a spot in the playoffs and put pressure on tomorrow's opponent, Hershey, to win eight of its next nine games to earn a berth.

Washington Capitals coach Terry Murray thought he'd wait a little longer to make a final decision on his backup goalkeeper. But yesterday, with the Oct. 7 season opener looming closer, Murray and general manager David Poile assigned 23 players to the Baltimore Skipjacks, including goalkeeper Byron Dafoe."

Moves Baseball MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: Suspended Pirates P Salomon Torres four games and fined him an undisclosed amount for intentionally throwing at Athletics C Damian Miller on June 12. Suspended Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon one game and fined him an undisclosed amount for the same incident after a warning was issued. BLUE JAYS: Placed C Bobby Estalella on 15-day DL with sprained right ankle. Recalled P Michael Nakamura from Triple-A Syracuse. BREWERS: Signed P Mark Rogers. CARDINALS: Activated C Mike Matheny from 15-day DL. Optioned P Jason Simontacchi to Triple-A Memphis.

LANDOVER -- The Washington Capitals made more beautiful passes, set up more wonderful scoring opportunities than their fans -- what there were of them last night -- had seen in a long time.But an elusive slap shot that went off the arm of New York Islanders goalie Tommy Soderstrom with 6:52 to go and slid ever so slowly through the crease and over the goal line kept the Capitals from defeat. That goal and sent the game to overtime, in which Steve Konowalchuk scored his second goal of the night with 2:44 left to lift the Caps to a 4-3 victory.

With six losses in their past eight games, the Washington Capitals are starting to fray around the edges.As the team heads back to practice today, following back-to-back losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 in overtime Friday and 3-0 on Saturday, the Capitals and their coach agree on the problem: a lack of goal scoring. But they differ on the reasons for it.The Capitals seem to believe the absence of injured Pat Peake and Peter Bondra has much to do with their problems. Coach Jim Schoenfeld believes, simply, that all 20 players on his team are not giving everything they have.