Ovie nets 20, Caps dominate
Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 20th goal and assisted on another, helping the Capitals snap their recent run of futility against the San Jose Sharks with a 4-1 victory last night in Washington.
The Capitals beat the Sharks for the fourth time in 18 meetings since Ovechkin entered the league in 2005-06. It’s just Washington’s second regulation win against San Jose in that time and first since Oct. 15, 2009. It ended a four-game skid in the series.
Halting the Sharks’ recent mastery came at a cost: T.J. Oshie left in the second period with an upper-body injury and didn’t return. As Oshie already was engaged with Logan Couture and falling down along the boards, he took Joe Thornton’s backside to the head.
Tom Wilson took exception to Thornton’s hit and fought him in the third period of a chippy game that also included a fight between Alex Chiasson and Barclay Goodrow.
Before those tensions rose, Ovechkin continued his climb up the career list with his 578th goal, passing Hall of Famer Mark Recchi for 20th. He’s the 11th player in NHL history to score at least 20 goals in each of his first 13 seasons.
Islanders 5, Panthers 4 — In Sunrise, Fla., Mathew Barzal scored the winning goal in a shootout to lift the New York to victory after Florida goalie Roberto Luongo was injured in the second period.
New York’s Anders Lee scored his 100th career goal. John Tavares, Brock Nelson and Thomas Hickey also scored in regulation for the Islanders. Jaroslav Halak made 39 saves and stopped all three attempts in the shootout.
Flyers 5, Flames 2 — Scott Laughton scored twice and Brian Elliott made 43 saves as visiting Philadelphia snapped a 10-game losing streak by beating Calgary.
Elsewhere in the NHL — The shake-up is starting in Buffalo, where Sabres general manager Jason Botterill began making moves in a bid to improve a vastly underperforming lastplace team stuck in a 1-9-2 slump.
High-priced and littleused veteran forward Matt Moulson was waived for the purpose of being demoted to the minors. And Botterill pulled off a trade by acquiring forward Scott Wilson from the Detroit Red Wings to add a role player with Stanley Cupwinning experience to his roster. In exchange, the Red Wings acquired Buffalo’s fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft for Wilson.