Ovechkin’s milestone goal highlights Capitals’ victory
Alex Ovechkin scored his 20th goal of the season and the 750th of his NHL career to help the Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 Saturday night and snap a two-game skid.
Ovechkin became the second-fastest player to reach the 750-goal mark, doing so in his 1,222nd regular-season game. Wayne Gretzky, whose record of 894 Ovechkin is chasing, got to 750 in 1,001 games.
The Capitals’ captain reached the 20goal mark in his 25th game of the season. Ovechkin joined Marcel Dionne, Jaromir Jagr and Mats Sundin as the only players to score 20 or more goals in each of his first 17 seasons in the NHL.
Rookie Aliaksei Protas scored his second career goal by following his own rebound in the first. Garnet Hathaway sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:27 remaining in regulation.
PANTHERS 4, BLUES 3, SO >> Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored in the shootout, and Florida rallied from three onegoal deficits to beat St. Louis.
Maxim Mamin scored two goals and Reinhart added a goal for Florida. Lucas Carlsson and Anton Lundell each had two assists and Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves for the Panthers and stopped Ryan O’Reilly to end the shootout.
Ville Husso made a career-best 48 saves for the Blues.
Florida improved to 14-1-0 at home. LIGHTNING 3, BRUINS 2, OT >> Steven Stamkos scored at 1:31 of overtime, and Tampa Bay bounced back after blowing a twogoal lead to defeat Boston.
Taylor Raddysh had his first career goal, a short-handed score in the first period, and Ondrej Palat also scored for the defending Stanley Cup champions. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 37 shots.
PREDATORS 4, CANADIENS 3, OT >> Filip Forsberg scored with 11.1 seconds remaining in overtime, giving Nashville a victory over Montreal.
Eeli Tolvanen, Tanner Jeannot and Luke Kunin also scored for Nashville.
Jake Allen had 40 saves for Montreal. RED WINGS 4, ISLANDERS 3, OT >> Moritz Seider scored 3:33 into overtime and Detroit beat the Islanders, handing New York its 10th straight loss.
Filip Hronek, Sam Gagner and Givani Smith also scored for the Red Wings, who won their season-high fifth straight. HURRICANES 6, SABRES 2 >> Teuvo Teravainen scored two goals and Carolina rode an early burst of offense to a victory over Buffalo.
Martin Necas, Ian Cole, Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter also scored for the Hurricanes, who snapped a season-worst three-game losing streak.