Ovechkin, Capitals beat Sabres
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 35th goal, and the Washington Capitals reclaimed the top spot in the Metropolitan Division with a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
John Carlson had a goal and assist and Philipp Grubauer stopped 32 shots in a game Washington led 2-0 after two periods.
Evgeny Kuznetsov sealed the victory by scoring into an open net with 26 seconds remaining, and the Capitals ended a four-game road trip at 2-1-1 and bounced back from a 7-1 loss at Chicago on Saturday.
Washington improved to 34-18-7 for 75 points, moving one ahead of the idle Pittsburgh Penguins.
Matt Cullen and Tyler Ennis scored in Minnesota’s three-goal second period, and the Wild beat New York on the road. Brad Marchand scored his 22nd goal 3:36 into overtime to give Boston a road victory over Calgary. Viktor Arvidsson scored twice to reach 20 goals this season as Nashville beat Ottawa at home. Torrey Mitchell and Andy Andreoff scored during Los Angeles’ dominant first period, helping the Kings beat Chicago on the road.
The Chicago Blackhawks banned four fans from their home games for directing racist taunts toward Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly. Smith-Pelly was sitting in the penalty box in the third period of Saturday night’s 7-1 loss to Chicago when the fans yelled “basketball, basketball, basketball” toward the winger, who is black. An off-ice official sitting next to Smith-Pelly notified United Center security and the fans were ejected.
The Philadelphia Flyers acquired goaltender Petr Mrazek from the Detroit Red Wings for two conditional draft picks. Mrazek was 8-7-3 with a 2.89 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage this season for Detroit. The Flyers sent a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2018 and a conditional third-round draft pick in 2019 to Detroit.