Ovechkin hits 600 in Caps’ win
WASHINGTON — Make it 600 goals and counting for Alex Ovechkin, and give the Washington Capitals two more points for the tough playoff race in the Eastern Conference.
Ovechkin scored twice in another historic performance, and Evgeny Kuznetsov had the overtime winner as the Capitals returned to first place by beating the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Monday.
Ovechkin, 32, scored during a 5-on-3 power play in the first period and then put back a rebound past Connor Hellebuyck for No. 600 in the second.
The Russian winger became the 20th player and fourth-fastest in NHL history to the milestone and is on pace to lead the league in goals for the seventh time with 42 on the season.
“Of course it’s special,” he said. “You can see when I score the goal, everybody tried to find me, everybody tried to look at me. I knew if I’m gonna have another one, I’m gonna score.”
Ovechkin continued a season-long trend of scoring a high volume of goals for the Capitals, who lost significant talent from back-to-back Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams. He has roughly a fifth of Washington’s goals this season and needed to be on his game against Patrik Laine and Winnipeg.
Laine entered with an 11-game point streak and scored his 41st goal of the season to make it 16 in his past 12. Nikolaj Ehlers also scored a 4-on-4 goal for Winnipeg, which got 40 saves from Hellebuyck.
But everyone was left in awe of the great Ovechkin, who could become the first player age 32 or older to lead the NHL in goals since Phil Esposito in 1974-75.
Ovechkin joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull as the lone players to score 600 in fewer than 1,000 games.
At Columbus, Ohio, Alexander Wennberg had a goal and three assists as Columbus won its fifth straight and dealt Montreal its fifth loss in a row.
At San Jose, Calif., Chris Tierney had a goal and an assist for San Jose, which handed Detroit its seventh straight loss. Tyler Bertuzzi had three assists for the Red Wings. At Los Angeles, Jonathan Quick had 35 saves in his 48th shutout and fourth this season, Tyler Toffoli had a goal and an assist, and Vancouver lost its fourth straight.
At New York, Jimmy Vesey had three goals and Pavel Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad three assists each for New York, which halted a three-game skid.
At Sunrise, Fla., Matt Duchene and Magnus Paajarvi each scored twice for Ottawa, which stopped Florida’s eight-game home win streak.
At Anaheim, Calif., Ivan Barbashev had a goal and an assist for St. Louis, which won for the third time in 12 games and dealt Anaheim its third straight loss.
Blue Jackets 5, Canadiens 2 — Sharks 5, Red Wings 3— Kings 3, Canucks 0 — Rangers 6, Hurricanes 3— Senators 5, Panthers 3— Blues 4, Ducks 2 —