WASHINGTON _ Three decades had passed since the Stars last opened a season as poorly as they had this year. The team hadn't moved to Dallas yet. Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen were not alive.
They didn't want to make more history on Tuesday night.
The Stars (1-3-0) earned their first win of the season with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Capitals (2-0-2), a come from behind effort that was backstopped by a strong effort from goaltender Ben Bishop and capped with Tyler Seguin's game-winning goal 43 seconds into overtime.
Seguin finished a 2-on-1 rush with Alexander Radulov, a huge goal that gave the Stars their first win of the season. And they needed it.
Nicklas Backstrom tied the game with 30.7 seconds left in the third period in a 6-on-5 situation, wasting Nick Caamano's first NHL goal that could have been the game-winner for the Stars.
It had been 31 years since the Stars began a season with four losses, a development that would have dimmed the team's Stanley Cup expectations that swelled over the summer. It would have asked the team without a win to climb uphill the rest of the season to return to the postseason.
Losses to Boston and St. Louis and Detroit created concern. So did the first two periods in Washington.
The Capitals barraged goaltender Ben Bishop with shots on goal in the first two periods, outshooting Dallas 14-5 in the first and 14-6 in the second. By the game was 40 minutes old, Washington had attempted 49 shots; Dallas, 21. At the end of the second period, Washington's Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson combined for 10 shots on goal, just one fewer than all the Stars combined.
Roope Hintz continued his torrid pace to start the season, scoring his fourth goal in as many games when he broke through the Capitals defense for a goal off the rush in the second period. Alexander Radulov tied the game with 12:07 left in the third period by banging home a rebound for his first goal of the season.
Bishop kept the Stars in the game early with a bevy of saves, but let Carlson's shot from the boards slip between his left arm and his torso in the second period. He also came up big in the third period when the Stars' parade to the penalty box asked him to kill penalties, including 1:06 of a 5-on-3.
"We're taking too many penalties and we're not managing the game well in big moments right now," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said Tuesday morning. "Parts of every game we've had moments where we have complete momentum and we take it away from ourselves. So we just got to be smarter in those areas. And it's been every game that's happened.
"It's just early in the year, and you lose three games to start off the year, it's really noticeable. We did it last year in December and it wasn't as noticeable."
The Stars' third-period comeback included outshooting Washington 12-5.
