Mantha gets two points as Capitals win in his debut

Anthony Mantha had a two points in his Washington debut, Alex Ovechkin scored the 728th goal of his NHL career and the Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-1 at home Tuesday night for their third consecutive victory.

The East Divisionleading Capitals went 3 for 3 on the power play as part of another offensive outburst. They routed the banged-up Boston Bruins 8-1 Sunday night on the eve of the trade deadline.

They gave up skilled young forward Jakub Vrana, a first-round pick and a second-rounder to get Mantha from Detroit in the hopes of better positioning themselves for another deep playoff run. So far, so good: Mantha picked up an assist on Tom Wilson’s goal in the first period, then showed off his shot in the second for his 12th of the season.

Ovechkin scored his team-leading 22nd in the third, beating Brian Elliott from his trademark spot inside the faceoff circle on the power play. The Capitals’ captain is now three back of Marcel Dionne for fifth on the career goals list.

Washington’s longestand shortest-tenured players weren’t the only ones to get in on the goal-scoring fun against Philadelphia, which sold at the deadline and looked like a team ready for the offseason. Conor Sheary, Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom and Carl Hagelin scored the other goals.

Rangers 3, Devils 0: Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves in posting his first NHL shutout and New York opened a four-game series against rival New Jersey Devils with a shutout. Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin scored and Adam Fox had assists on both goals as New York improved to 10-4-3 since March 13. Pavel Buchnevich scored into an empty net with 28 seconds to play for the 20,000th goal in Rangers’ franchise history.

Mackenzie Blackwood had 17 saves as the young Devils fell to 2-7-2 in their last 11. Even the return of captain Nico Hischier from a broken nose that had sidelined him since Feb. 27 didn’t help.

Bruins 3, Sabres 2 (SO): Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk scored in Boston’s two chances in the shootout and the Bruins, with newcomer Taylor Hall, rebounded to defeat Buffalo at home.

Craig Smith and David Krejci scored in regulation for Boston, which had lost its last two games.

Jeremy Swayman made 21 saves for the Bruins and stopped Buffalo’s two shootout attempts.

LATE MONDAY

Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 2:

Tomas Tatar scored two goals, including an empty-netter, and host Montreal Canadiens ended Toronto’s six-game winning streak.

It was the first loss of the year for Toronto goalie

Jack Campbell, who set an NHL record with 11 consecutive wins to start a season.

Avalanche 4, Coyotes Mikko Rantanen had two goals and host Colorado won for the eighth time in nine games.

Brandon Saad and Nathan MacKinnon also scored as the Avalanche improved to 12-0-1 in their last 13 games at Ball Arena, the fourth-longest home point streak in franchise history. Philipp Grubauer made 35 saves for his career-high