Alex Ovechkin scored his 791st career goal during a power play with 7:36 remaining in the third period and added an assist as the host Washington Capitals beat the Calgary Flames 3-0 on Friday afternoon.
Ovechkin scored for the second straight game and is nine shy of joining Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky as the third player in NHL history with at least 800 goals. It was Ovechkin’s 291st career power-play goal and he ended his 1,296th regular-season game with 1,431 career points.
Ovechkin capped what was mostly a dominant showing by Washington when flicked a shot by Calgary goaltender Jacob Markstrom’s left pad from near the dot in the right faceoff circle after getting a cross-ice feed from Conor Sheary.
T.J. Oshie scored in the opening period and set up a highlight-reel goal by Evgeny Kuznetsov late in the second. It was Oshie’s second straight multi-point game since returning from an 11-game absence due to a lower body injury Wednesday. Oshie also drew the interference penalty on Milan Lucic on a play around the net that led to the power play Ovechkin scored on.
Washington goalie Darcy Kuemper made 15 of his 32 saves in the opening period to help the Capitals win consecutive games for the third time and first time since beating the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils Oct. 22-24. Kuemper recorded his second shutout since joining Washington, 27th regular-season shutout and his 150th career win.
Calgary fell to 2-2-1 on a six-game trip and dropped to 4-2-1 in its past seven contests by getting blanked for the first time this season.
Markstrom made 22 saves to drop to 1-8-1 in his career against Washington.
After the Capitals killed off an early high-sticking penalty to Ovechkin, the superstar set up Oshie’s tally 7:56 into the first.
Ovechkin entered the offensive zone and moved the puck to Erik Gustafsson, who by the right post. Gustafsson made a slick cross-ice pass to Oshie, who eluded defensemen Trevor Lewis and Chris Tanev before putting a one-timer past Markstrom.
Kuznetsov made it 2-0 with 3:23 remaining by creating his own breakaway. He got the puck from Oshie near the neutral zone, sped into the slot, split Tanev and Nikita Zadorov and pushed the puck under Markstrom’s right leg while falling down to the ice.
–Field Level Media