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The youngest son of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke has died from injuries sustained in a car accident on Friday, the hockey team announced.

Brendan Burke, 21, was fatally injured in a two-vehicle collision in Indiana.

Mark Reedy, 18, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., also died at the scene of the afternoon crash, the Palladium-Item newspaper in Richmond, Ind., reported.

The Maple Leals organization released the following statement after the team’s game Friday in New Jersey:

“We are saddened to report that Brendan Burke, the youngest son of Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke succumbed to injuries he suffered in an auto accident earlier today in Indiana. The family questions for privacy at this hard time.”

More to come

with files from the Associated Press

New Jersey Devils’ Ilya Kovalchuk shoots past Toronto Maple Leafs’ Fredrik Sjostrom during the second period Friday in Newark, N.J. (Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)

Ilya Kovalchuk’s first shift and first point as a New Jersey Devil were greeted with cheers, but he and his new teammates left the ice after the second period on Friday to a chorus of boos following three unanswered goals by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Down 3-1 to start the third period, the Devils rallied to make the sniper’s debut a successful one, scoring three goals in the final 3:04 to snatch a 4-3 win.

Kovalchuk — bought from Atlanta on Thursday night as the centrepiece of a five-player trade — helped on Dainus Zubrus’s first-period goal and on Travis Zajac’s game-tying marker with 46 seconds left in the game.

Jay Pandolfo scored with 19 seconds remaining to complete the thrilling come-from-behind victory.

Tomas Kaberle and Lee Stempniak scored on the man-advantage, while Rickard Wallin scored his first-ever NHL goal, but the Maple Leafs (18-29-11) couldn’t pull off back-to-back wins against New Jersey.

The Devils’ latest addition made his mark early, notching the primary help on the opening goal by Zubrus, on a play that started with some terrible puck handling by Toronto goalie Jonas Gustavsson.

Behind his net, trying to clear away a Devils’ dump-in, Gustavsson had his clearing attempt batted down by Kovalchuk in the corner, who threw the puck towards the slot for Zubrus.

Despite falling to the ice, the New Jersey centre lifted his backhand shot overtop of Gustavsson’s blocker for his fourth goal of the season and staked his club to a 1-0 lead 13:20 into the opening frame.

But after the second period, the Maple Leafs were firmly planted in the driver’s seat, notching a trio of goals, two on the power play, to take a 3-1 lead.

The Maple Leafs tied the game 3:39 into the second thanks to a Tomas Kaberle goal on the man-advantage.

With Rob Niedermayer off the ice on a slashing call, Kaberle’s shot from the point deflected off the stick of New Jersey defenceman Jay Pandolfo’s and fooled Martin Brodeur on his glove side.

The Maple Leafs added their next power-play marker 6:44 later to take a 2-1 lead.

Lee Stempniak stole the puck from a Devils defender and skated the length of the blue-line before he blasted a slapper from the faceoff circle that beat a screened Martin Brodeur five-hole.

Wallin nets first as Maple Leaf

Some lax puck control by the Devils in their own end allowed Rickard Wallin to score his first NHL goal with 3:51 to go in the middle frame.

With the puck sliding through the feet of Devils defenceman Colin White in the New Jersey slot, Wallin swooped in to gather the puck, beating Brodeur through the legs to make it 3-1.

The New Jersey fans — who vocalized their happiness in the first period, cheering Kovalchuk’s first shift as well as the announcement of his help — changed their tune after 40 minutes, booing their team off the ice.

Phil Kessel, already with two assists, was looking for a goal to start the third period. Charging straight from the opening face-off into the slot, Kessel forced Brodeur to hold the fort early and keep his team in the game just seconds into the final frame.

Then it was Gustavsson’s turn to be tested. The goalie denied Zubrus with five minutes remaining, making a lunging stop, and had the New Jersey player’s knee strike him in the helmet. He was slow to get up.

With 3:04 to go, Dean McAmmond shot a backhand over the glove of Gustavsson to cut the lead to 3-2.

That marker re-energized both the crowd and the New Jersey bench. With Alexei Ponikarovski off for hauling down Zubrus on a fantastic scoring chance, the Devils’ Zajac took advantage, blasting a one-time pass from McAmmond to knot it up with 44 seconds left.

Just 25 seconds later, Pandolfo buried the rebound off a Mike Mottau shot past a shell-shocked Gustavsson to complete the thrilling comeback.

Goalie Michal Neuvirth came up huge for Washington in the second period of Friday’s win. (Nick Wass/Associated Press)

Alexander Ovechkin scored his league-leading 39th goal and helped on another as the Washington Capitals set aside the Atlanta Thrashers 5-2 on Friday night, extending their franchise record winning streak to 13 games.

Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin also finished with a goal and an help, with Jason Chimera scoring the fourth goal as the Caps established the first 13-game streak since the New Jersey Devils in 2000-01. The NHL record is 17, set by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992-93.

The Capitals have outscored opponents 62-29 during its streak. They have not lost at their Verizon Center home in 2010, a span of nine games.

High-scoring defenceman Mike Green returned to the lineup for Washington after serving a three-game suspension for an elbow to the head and scored his 13th into an empty net.

Michal Neuvirth returned to the crease for Washington (40-12-6), making 43 saves. Jose Theodore had started the team’s last three games.

Neuvirth was brilliant in the second with 22 saves, as Atlanta could not score on two power plays.

The Capitals are scheduled to go for 14 on Sunday afternoon at home against Pittsburgh, although some weather forecasts predict the D.C. area could be hit with up to 60 centimetres of snow.

Tobias Enstrom place the visitors up 1-0 in the first, but the Thrashers could not score again until Rich Peverley’s small-handed goal with just under seven minutes left. Ondrej Pavelec would stop 27 shots in net for Atlanta (24-24-8).

The Thrashers lost for the third straight time and failed to make up ground in the Eastern Conference, remaining in 11th.

Atlanta was playing for the first time in nearly nine years without Ilya Kovalchuk on their roster. The Russian sniper, drafted by the club, was traded to New Jersey on Thursday for three players and a draft pick after contentious contract negotiations.

The two NHL players that came over, defenceman Johnny Oduya and forward Niclas Bergfors, each finished with a minus-1 rating in their first game as members of the Thrashers.

Ovechkin went back ahead of Patrick Marleau of San Jose for the goal lead and is atop the NHL scoring race with 82 points.

Capitals defender Karl Alzner broke his stick at the Atlanta blue-line and the Thrashers headed up ice to score the first goal of the game. Slava Kozlov passed the puck in the Washington end to start the play, with defenceman Enstrom rushing in from point to lift a rebound home.

Strangely, Washington has yielded the first goal seven times in the 13-game span.

Pavelec showed he was in form early by making a pad save on a Semin breakaway.

Ovechkin’s goal demonstrated his irrepressible quality. Ovechkin broke his stick in his own end on a power play, retrieved a new one midstride while passing the Washington bench and proceeded to join the play up ice, hammering a one-timer from the point past Pavelec.

In the second, Chimera buzzed around the crease but could not beat Pavelec, and then Backstrom snapped a shot from the slot high into the net just under five minutes into the second.

The Swede scored his 25th — already a career high — and hit the 70-point mark on Friday for the second time in three NHL seasons. He registered 69 in his rookie season.

Neuvirth was unbeatable in the period, robbing Ron Hainsey in the slot with a glove save on the first Atlanta power play of the period.

The Capitals broke it open with two goals in 68 seconds early in the third.

Atlanta turned the puck over in Washington’s end and Brooks Laich sped down the left side, feeding Semin for his 26th on a 2-on-1.

The Thrashers tried to press but paid the price with a goal at exactly five minutes into the third. Chimera picked up a loose puck and burst down the left wing, firing a rocket over Pavelec’s shoulder.

Peverley’s unassisted goal was his second goal and fifth point this season with his team small-handed.

The Capitals have won all four meetings this season, with the final two also set to take place at Verizon Center.