Ovechkin milestone leads Caps past Habs
Alex Ovechkin tied Canadiens great Maurice “Rocket” Richard with his 544th career goal and had two assists, leading the Washington Capitals to a 4-1 victory last night in Montreal, their sixth straight win.
Ovechkin, who has won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league’s leader in goals six times, tied Richard for 29th place on the NHL career goals list. His three points moved him within one of 1,000.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Brett Connolly and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for Washington, and Braden Holtby finished with 22 saves. Holtby’s career-best shutout streak ended at 169 minutes, 12 seconds when Tomas Plekanec scored at 7:18 of the third period.
Capitals coach Barry Trotz worked his 1,400th regular-season game, tying Pat Quinn for eighth place on the career list, and picked up his 684th win, tying Quinn for sixth. Trotz is now one behind Ron Wilson for seventh place with 1,401 games coached.
Panthers 3, Capitals 0 — Roberto Luongo made 28 saves for his 73rd career shutout, leading Florida past New Jersey in Newark, N.J.
Luongo, tops among active goalies in shutouts, got his first of the season to move three behind Ed Belfour and Tony Esposito for ninth alltime. Retired Devils great Martin Brodeur holds the NHL record with 125.
Reilly Smith, Jussi Jokinen and Vincent Trocheck scored for Florida, which has won 3-of-5.
Jets 2, Flames 0 — Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for his third shutout of the season as host Winnipeg beat Calgary.
Dustin Byfuglien and Blake Wheeler scored for the Jets, winners of three of their past four games. Hellebuyck now has five shutouts in his two-year NHL career.
The Jets were playing for the first game since rookie star Patrik Laine was lost indefinitely because of a concussion suffered in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to Buffalo.
Stars 6, Kings 4 — Jiri Hudler scored the tiebreaking goal with 12:16 to play, and visiting Dallas blew a late two-goal lead before hanging on for a wild victory against Los Angeles.
Hudler, Tyler Seguin and Devin Shore had a goal and an assist apiece for the Stars, who snapped a threegame skid despite giving up four goals to the Kings in just over 10 minutes spanning the final two periods.
Elsewhere in the NHL — The Columbus Blue Jackets waived backup goalie Curtis McElhinney after a disastrous weekend performance and recalled 24-year-old Anton Forsberg from Cleveland of the AHL. The 33-year-old McElhinney, who gave away a 4-1 lead Saturday to the New York Rangers in a 5-4 loss, will be sent to Cleveland if he clears waivers. . . .
The Carolina Hurricanes placed forward Andrej Nestrasil on waivers.