SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his 887th career goal Saturday to move within eight of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record and the Washington Capitals beat the San Jose Sharks 5-1.
Ovechkin deflected a shot from Martin Fehervary past Georgi Romanov with 9:06 remaining in the third period. Romanov is the NHL-record 182nd goalie that Ovechkin has scored on.
The 39-year-old Russian star has 34 goals on the season. He remains on pace before the end of this season to pass Gretzky’s mark of 894 that long seemed unapproachable before the end of this season.
Ovechkin also had an assist on Dylan Strome’s game-opening goal to help Washington win for the sixth time in seven games.
Aliaksei Protas, Taylor Raddysh and Trevor van Riemsdyk also scored for Washington. Logan Thompson made 19 saves.
Macklin Celebrini scored for San Jose.
Alexandar Georgiev allowed three goals on 17 shots before being replaced by Romanov after the first period.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Saturday:
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SABRES 4 GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3 (SO)
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Alex Tuch scored the deciding goal in the shootout to lead Buffalo to a 4-3 win against Vegas.
Rasmus Dahlin, Ryan McLeod, and Jason Zucker scored in regulation for the Sabres. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 16 saves and stopped two out of three Vegas shooters in the tiebreaker.
The Sabres had dropped seven of eight.
Jack Eichel, Brett Howden, Pavel Dorofeyev scored for the Golden Knights, who lost for the third time in four games. Adin Hill made 34 saves in regulation and overtime.
Vegas grabbed a 3-2 lead when Eichel scored with 2:33 left in the third. It was Eichel’s 21st goal of the season.
Dahlin responded with his 12th goal for Buffalo with 13.6 seconds to play.
Sabres forward Jiri Kulich was injured at 9:25 of the second period after a hit from Howden.
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PENGUINS 7 DEVILS 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Erik Karlsson scored a power-play goal and Pittsburgh beat New Jersey 7-3.
Rickard Rakell scored his team-leading 31st goal. Connor Dewar scored twice, and Philip Tomasino, Kevin Hayes and Danton Heinen also scored.
With an assist, Sidney Crosby tied Wayne Gretzky for the fourth-most points with a single franchise. Crosby also recorded his 12th 50-assist season, equalling Adam Oates for 8th in NHL history. He has points in 10 straight home games.
Tristan Jarry made 24 saves for his fourth straight win since he was recalled from the American Hockey League earlier this month. Jarry has stopped 123 of his last 130 shots faced.
Nico Hischier and Timo Meier scored power-play goals for the Devils. Cody Glass also had a goal. Nathan Bastian’s short-handed goal was called back on a challenge because he was offside.
Jesper Bratt had his third straight three-point game with three assists, matching the longest streak in franchise history. He has 60 assists this season, which equals Scott Stevens’ franchise record. Bratt has two goals and nine points in his last three games.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 16 shots.
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RANGERS 4 BLUE JACKETS 0
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Vincent Trocheck scored twice in the third period, Igor Shesterkin made 18 saves for his fifth shutout this season and New York leapfrogged Columbus for the second Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot with a victory.
Alexis Lafreniere and Artemi Panarin each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who won the last two games of their three-stop road trip. New York has won eight of its last 11 against the Blue Jackets, including three of four this season.
Of Shesterkin’s 20 career shutouts, four have come against Columbus — including his last two games against the Blue Jackets.
Daniil Tarasov made 18 saves for the Blue Jackets, who lost their third straight, including shutouts in their last two at home. Columbus has failed to score in three of its last five games.
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HURRICANES 5 FLYERS 0
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mark Jankowski scored twice, Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 26 shots for his second shutout of the season, and Carolina beat Philadelphia for their seventh straight win.
Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist, Taylor Hall and Scott Morrow also scored, and Eric Robinson and Shayne Gostisbehere each had two assists for Carolina.
Samuel Ersson finished with 26 saves for the Flyers, who have lost six of seven.
Aho gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 8:21 of the first period, and Jankowski doubled the lead with 4:14 remaining in the opening period.
Hall made it 3-0 on a power play just 19 seconds into the second. Gostisbehere’s shot from the point was turned aside by Ersson, but the puck went to Aho in the slot. His redirect trickled through Ersson’s pads and Hall knocked it in from the right doorstep.
Jankowski got his second of the night as he beat Ersson for his eighth of the season and second two-goal effort in the last four games since he was acquired from Nashville. He had four in 41 games with the Predators.
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LIGHTNING 6 BRUINS 2
BOSTON (AP) — Anthony Cirelli scored twice and Tampa Bay held Boston without a shot in the second period in a 6-2 victory.
Nick Paul, Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh added goals to help Tampa Bay snap a three-game skid. Cirelli and Ben Hagel had empty-netters.
Elias Lindholm and Marat Khusnutdinov scored for the Bruins. They are 2-2 since trading three longtime cornerstone players — including captain Brad Marchand — at the deadline.
Paul’s goal off a rebound from the left edge of the crease made it 2-1 at 2:13 of the second.
Coming off a shootout loss at Philadelphia, the Lightning jumped ahead on Hedman’s goal on the second rebound out of a scramble early into the game.
Lindholm’s one-timed a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy off a nifty feed from Andrew Peeke, tying it in the opening period.
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SENATORS 4 MAPLE LEAFS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Claude Giroux broke a second-period tie on a power play and Ottawa beat Toronto for their sixth straight victory.
Jake Sanderson, David Perron and Michael Amadio, into the empty net, also scored. Linus Ullmark made 20 saves.
William Nylander and Auston Matthews scored for Toronto, and Anthony Stolarz stopped 21 shots. The Maple Leafs have dropped five of six.
The Senators trail their provincial rival by four points in the Atlantic Division standings. Toronto sits third after Tampa Bay beat Boston 6-2, while fourth-place Ottawa occupies the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot.
Ottawa took a 3-2 lead when Giroux’s centring pass to Ridly Greig glanced off the stick of Toronto defenceman Chris Tanev and past Stolarz.
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CANADIENS 3 PANTHERS 1
MONTREAL (AP) — Cole Caufield scored his team-leading 33rd goal and added an assist to help Montreal beat Florida.
Patrik Laine and Christian Dvorak — with his 100th career goal — also scored for Montreal. Sam Montembeault made 21 saves, including a windmill glove stop on Carter Verhaeghe late.
Mackie Samoskevich scored for Florida, which lost for the second time in nine games. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 12 shots.
The Canadiens, who were coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to Seattle on Wednesday, remained within a point of being in playoff position with 71 points.
Laine opened the scoring with a power-play goal 5:15 into the game, ripping a wrist shot over Bobrovsky’s left shoulder for his 16th — and 13th with the man-advantage — in 36 games.
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BLUES 5 WILD 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Jordan Kyrou scored three goals for his fifth career hat trick and St. Louis Blues beat Minnesota.
Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist, and Jake Neighbours also scored to help St. Louis win for the third time in five games. Cam Fowler, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich each had two assists, and Joel Hofer stopped 17 shots.
Jake Middleton scored for Minnesota, and Filip Gustavsson finished with 22 saves. The Wild lost for the fourth time in five games.
Schenn gave the Blues a 1-0 lead 4:17 into the game and Neighbours doubled the lead midway through the second period.
Kyrou made it 3-0 as he knocked in the rebound of a shot by Schenn with 7:38 remaining in the second.
Middleton got the Wild on the scoreboard 25 seconds later. Hofer went behind the net to play the puck, and his delayed clearing attempt went to Middleton near the blue line and he skated up and paused before firing the puck in before the goalie could get back in position.
Kyrou restored the three-goal lead with 8 1/2 minutes left in the third, and completed the hat trick with an empty-netter with 2:20 to go for his 27th of the season.
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KINGS 1 PREDATORS 0 (OT)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Quinton Byfield scored at 3:20 of overtime, Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for his second straight shutout and Los Angeles beat Nashville for their fifth victory in a row.
Byfield ran his goals streak to six games, beating goalie Justus Annunen off a cross-crease pass from Adrian Kempe.
Kuemper and the Kings were coming off a 3-0 home victory over Washington on Thursday night. He has four shutouts this season and 35 overall.
Annunen stopped 20 shots.
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CANUCKS 6 BLACKHAWKS 2
VANCOUVER, B.C. (AP) — Elias Pettersson had a goal and an assist as Vancouver beat Chicago.
Conor Garland and Pius Suter also each had a goal and an assist, and Quin Hughes, Nils Aman and Tyler Myers also scored for the Canucks. Kiefer Sherwood, Teddy Blueger and Nils Hoglander each had two assists.
Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs stopped 17 shots to get his first win since Nov. 16 when the Canucks beat Chicago 4-1.
Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser scored, and Ryan Donato had two assists for the Blackhawks. Arvid Soderblom had two assists as Chicago extended its losing streak to 0-3-1.
The Associated Press