Ovechkin shines as Capitals enjoy rare win against Sharks
WASHINGTON » Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 20th goal and assisted on another, helping the Washington Capitals snap their recent run of futility against the San Jose Sharks with a 4-1 victory Monday night.
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 was already engaged with Logan Couture and falling down along the boards, he took Joe Thornton’s backside to the head. ISLANDERS 5, PANTHERS 4 » Mathew Barzal scored the winning goal in a shootout to lift the New York Islanders over Florida 5-4 on Monday night after Panthers 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.
Denis Malgin, Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad scored for the Panthers. Keith Yandle had a goal and two assists, and Vincent Trocheck three assists.
Luongo allowed one goal on 13 shots before he left the game after he was injured when he stretched out his right leg to block a shot by Ryan Pulock at 17:29 of the second. Luongo was helped off the ice by trainers and wasn’t able to put any weight on the leg. He did not return.
James Reimer replaced Luongo and finished with 16 saves. PREDATORS 5, BRUINS 3 » Craig Smith scored twice added and added an assist to lead the Nashville Predators over the Boston Bruins 5-3 on Monday night.
Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist, and Nick Bonino and Filip Forsberg also scored for Nashville, which has won three of four. Pekka Rinne made 36 saves.
Charlie McAvoy, Zdeno Chara and David Pastrnak had the goals for Boston, which won its previous two games.
Smith scored the game’s first goal at 1:26 of the opening period. Boston goalie Anton Khudobin stopped Alexei Emelin’s slap shot from the left point, but Smith was positioned in the slot to bang home the rebound.
Smith struck again with 17.4 seconds remaining in the first.
From the left point, Mattias Ekholm sent a pass to Smith in the slot, sending him in on a partial breakaway. Smith beat Khudobin high to the glove side with a wrist shot for his 11th of the season.