Ovechkin gets two, but Leafs rout Capitals
Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 56th and 57th goals of the season and matched his career high with five points, leading the host Toronto Maple Leafs to a 7-3 rout of the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night despite Alex Ovechkin moving closer to Wayne Gretzky.
Ovechkin scored goals 844 and 845 of his career to move 50 back of breaking Gretzky's record that long seemed unapproachable. He's now at 23 this season after scoring 15 goals since Jan. 22 to make up for just eight in his first 43 games.
But even on a vintage night for Ovechkin, he took a back seat to Matthews' pursuit of 70 this season. Matthews scoring twice — with a third, would-be hat trick goal getting called back on a coach's challenge for offside — put him eight away from tying Ovechkin's career-best season of 65 from 2007-08, which is the highest since the league's salary cap era began in 2005.
Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Logan Stankoven scored in the second period to help host Dallas beat Arizona. The Stars extended their home points streak against the Coyotes to 19 games at 18-0-1. Dallas, Winnipeg and Colorado all have 93 points atop the Central Division. The Jets have played 68 games, the Avalanche 69 and the Stars 70.
Clayton Keller and John Leonard scored for Arizona.
STARS 5, COYOTES 2 >>
WESTERN CONFERENCE
PACIFIC DIVISION
Vancouver Edmonton Kings Vegas Calgary Seattle Ducks
San Jose
EASTERN CONFERENCE
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Boston Florida Toronto Tampa Bay Detroit Buffalo Montreal Ottawa
N.Y. Rangers Carolina Philadelphia Washington N.Y. Islanders New Jersey Pittsburgh Columbus
GP W
69 66 69 68 68 67 69 68
CENTRAL DIVISION
Winnipeg Colorado Dallas Nashville Minnesota St. Louis Arizona Chicago
GP W
70 68 68 68 69 70 68 67 69 69 69 68 68 69 68 69
Today's games
Friday's games
43 41 36 36 33 28 23 16
GP W
68 69 70 69 70 69 69 69 44 44 42 40 34 36 28 19 41 45 39 37 35 33 25 28
GP W
45 43 35 33 29 33 30 23
Wednesday's games
L OT Pts
18 21 22 25 30 27 43 45
L OT Pts
19 20 19 25 28 30 36 45
L OT Pts
14 19 20 25 28 32 31 35
METROPOLITAN DIVISION
20 20 26 26 24 32 29 34
Toronto 7, Washington 3 Dallas 5, Arizona 2
Kings 6, Minnesota 0 8 4 11 7 5 12 3 7 5 5 9 4 8 3 5 5 15 4 9 6 6 5 12
4 4 6 8 9 15 4 9 12 94 86 83 79 71 68 49 39 93 93 93 84 76 75 61 43 97 94 87 80 76 71 62 60
L OT Pts
N.Y. Islanders at Detroit, 4 p.m. N.Y. Rangers at Boston, 4 p.m. Philadelphia at Carolina, 4 p.m. St. Louis at Ottawa, 4 p.m. Winnipeg at New Jersey, 4 p.m. Nashville at Florida, 4:30 p.m. Buffalo at Edmonton, 6 p.m. Chicago at Ducks, 7 p.m. Montreal at Vancouver, 7 p.m. Seattle at Vegas, 7:30 p.m. Tampa Bay at San Jose, 7:30 p.m.
Carolina at Washington, 4 p.m. Pittsburgh at Dallas, 5 p.m. Columbus at Colorado, 6 p.m. Seattle at Arizona, 7 p.m.
GF GA
241 186 234 187 216 180 219 205 213 220 182 196 171 252 150 276
GF GA
214 160 258 207 256 212 227 206 216 225 197 209 203 229 152 248
GF
GF
GA
237 192 224 165 251 215 240 228 236 232 209 207 188 239 213 239
GA
94 231 189 92 236 185 78 206 211 75 184 215 73 203 226 70 225 238 69 199 204 58 202 250