WASHINGTON — Brian Elliott made 34 saves and Patrick Eaves and Nick Folingoscored back-to-back first-period goals to help the Ottawa Senators finishpreseason play as the league’s only undefeated team with a 2-1 win over theWashington Capitals on Sunday.

The Capitals (3-3-1) grabbed their only lead nearly six minutes into thefirst period when Viktor Kozlov deflected Alexander Ovechkin’s shot from theleft circle.

Their edge didn’t last for long, with Eaves scoring 26 seconds later. Ottawa(7-0-0) scored the game-winner midway through the period when Folingo flippedthe rebound off Antoine Vermette’s shot over the shoulder of Olaf Kolzig.

Washington outshot Ottawa 35-15, but Elliott kept the Capitals in check withseveral impressive stops — including a glove save on Kozlov’s wrist shot in theslot with 33 seconds left. The Senators also killed off all five Capitals powerplays.

Tyler Donati and Alexander Nikulin notched assists for Ottawa, which playedwithout its usual top line top line of Daniel Aldredsson, Dany Heatley and JasonSpezza.

Tom Poti added an assist for the Capitals, whose Alexander Semin was ascratch after spraining his right ankle in their 7-5 win over Philadelphia onFriday.

SEATTLE — Southern California’s narrow escape at Washington provided theTrojans a sobering dose of reality.

“We can’t play like that the rest of the season, or else we’ll lose like anormal team,” USC coach Pete Carroll said after the sloppy 27-24 victory overthe Huskies on Saturday night.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators used last year’s loss againstAuburn as motivation that helped propel them to the national championship.

Now, they will try to do it again.

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EUGENE, Ore. — It’s beginning to look a lot like last season for California– only better.

A key Pac-10 victory over undefeated Oregon last year sent the Golden Bearson their way to a 10-3 season and a share of the conference championship withUSC.

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BOSTON — Miroslav Satan and Jon Sim scored in the final 5:51, lifting theNew York Islanders to a 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday in thepreseason finale for both teams.

The Bruins took a 1-0 lead when, with the teams playing 4-on-4, Dave Krejcimade a nifty move in the New York zone and beat Islanders goalie Rick DiPietroat 5:09 of the first period. The Islanders tied it at 17:53 when Satan cashed inon a Boston giveaway to beat Manny Fernandez.

Glen Murray took a pass from Mark Savard and scored his second preseasongoal just 1:14 into the second period, but New York tied it again at 6:51 on thethird goal of the preseason by Mike Comrie.

Satan converted a power-play rebound with the Islanders owning a 4-on-3advantage with 5:51 remaining. Sim then put one over Fernandez’s shoulder with1:22 remaining to seal the victory.

The Bruins finished the preseason 1-4-1, playing all but one game withoutcaptain Zdeno Chara, who has been practicing but not dressing for games becauseof a shoulder ailment.

The Islanders finished the preseason at 3-4-2, playing the last three gameswithout coach Ted Nolan, who was away from the team due to the death of hisbrother. He was scheduled to return Monday.

Both teams will open the regular season on the road Friday. The Islanderswill visit Buffalo and the Bruins are set to start a five-game western road tripat Dallas.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts took Denver’s best shot Sunday, andthe Broncos couldn’t knock out the defending champions.

Indianapolis (4-0) relied on flawless execution and some surprisereinforcements after a rash of injuries to score on six of its last eightpossessions and pull away with a 38-20 victory.

The Colts have now won five of seven in the series since Tony Dungy tookover as coach and extended their league-best winning streak to nine when lastyear’s playoff games are included.

Denver (2-2) lost for the second straight week despite trying to overpowerthe Colts with its usually efficient ground game.

Travis Henry carried 26 times for 131 yards and the Broncos ran for 160yards in the first half, the best in the league this season. The result: Denverneeded less than 13 minutes to take a 10-0 lead that looked even more imposingwhen Indy receiver Marvin Harrison left in the second quarter with a bruisedleft knee.

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SAN FRANCISCO — From the moment Rocky Bernard drove Alex Smith into theturf, the upstart San Francisco 49ers were put back in their place.

They’re still crushed underneath the mighty Seattle Seahawks.

Matt Hasselbeck passed for 281 yards and two touchdowns, Bernard endedSmith’s day early with a punishing sack and the Seahawks claimed early supremacyin the NFC West with a 23-3 victory over the struggling 49ers on Sunday.

Deion Branch had seven catches for 130 yards for the Seahawks (3-1), whosnapped a two-game losing streak against San Francisco (2-2) with a uniformlyoverwhelming performance.

Bernard made the biggest of Seattle’s six first-half sacks on SanFrancisco’s third play from scrimmage, piledriving Smith with every ounce of his308-pound frame. The impact injured Smith’s right shoulder seriously enough tokeep him off the sideline for the rest of the day.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Troy Roberts and Kyle Martino scored in the first half andthe Los Angeles Galaxy beat the Columbus Crew 2-1 Sunday.

The Galaxy (7-13-6) overcame a goal in the second minute by Alejandro Morenoand improved its chances of making the MLS Cup playoffs despite a poor start tothe season and a stretch of eight losses in nine games in August and September.

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NEW YORK — LSU reached No. 1 the hard way.

The Tigers edged past Southern California in the AP Top 25 on Sunday, eventhough the Trojans remained undefeated.

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SHANGHAI - The United States put their goalkeeping row behind them with an emphatic 4-1 win over Norway to claim the World Cup’s third spot on Sunday.

With controversial ‘keeper Hope Solo axed for her outburst over the semi-final loss to Brazil, the two-time champions turned on the style with three goals in 14 second-half minutes.

US top-scorer Abby Wambach struck either side of the break with Lori Chalupny and Heather O’Reilly also weighing in before Ragnhild Gulbrandsen got her sixth of the tournament for Norway.

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