SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) - Alex Ovechkin added to his NHL lead with two goals on the night he tied the Washington record for most games played, and the Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 on Saturday.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored 50 seconds into the game and had two assists. Andre Burakovsky and Lars Eller also had goals for Washington, which leapfrogged Pittsburgh and moved back into first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Capitals had lost two in a row and five of seven.
Ovechkin’s 37th goal came on the power play with 9:47 remaining after Buffalo closed to 2-1 on Sam Reinhart’s goal 14 seconds into the third period. Ovechkin redirected a shot past Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner with 1:24 left for his 38th goal.
The 32-year-old Ovechkin played in his 983rd NHL game, tying Calle Johansson for most in Capitals history. Ovechkin holds franchise records for goals (596) and points (1,105).
Philipp Grubauer made 28 saves for his third win in three starts. Grubauer’s previous victory came against Buffalo, 3-2 on Monday.
PANTHERS 6, PENGUINS 5
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) - Evgenii Dadonov scored with 1:53 to play to complete a hat track and give Florida the victory over Pittsburgh.
Dadonov beat goalie Matt Murray on a one-timer off Aleksander Barkov’s pass for the winner. Dadonov has 18 goals this season.
Vincent Trocheck, Jamie McGinn and Derek MacKenzie also scored. Barkov had three assists, Keith Yandle added two, and Roberto Luongo made 24 saves.
Evgeni Malkin had two goals and an assist for the Penguins, and Carl Hagelin, Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust added goals. Tristan Jarry made 13 saves for Pittsburgh before he was replaced in the second period. Murray had 11 saves in relief.
LIGHTNING 4, CANADIENS 3, SO
MONTREAL (AP) - Brayden Point scored in regulation and added the shootout winner and Tampa Bay regained the top spot in the NHL with the victory over Montreal.
Nikita Kucherov and Ryan Callahan also scored in regulation to help the Lightning (42-17-3) win their third straight and move a point ahead of idle Vegas for the overall NHL lead.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for his league-leading 36th victory of the season.
Byron Froese, Joe Morrow and Max Pacioretty scored for Montreal.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, BRUINS 3
TORONTO (AP) - Ron Hainsey broke a tie with 1:23 left to give Toronto its franchise record-tying ninth straight home victory.
Hainsey’s one-timed William Nylander’s pass past goalie Tuuka Rask for his fourth goal of the season.
Toronto moved a point ahead of Boston for the second seed in the Atlantic Division.
Nazem Kadri scored twice, Mitch Marner had a goal and three assists, and Nylander had two assists. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves to improve to 10-1-0 against the Bruins.
Brad Marchand scored twice, and Jake DeBrusk also connected for Boston.
RED WINGS 3, HURRICANES 1
DETROIT (AP) - Henrik Zetterberg scored the go-ahead goal in the second period to tie Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay on Detroit’s career list and the Red Wings went on to beat Carolina.
Zetterberg’s ninth goal this season was the 335th of his career. In the franchise’s record books, he trails just four greats: Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Alex Delvecchio and Sergei Fedorov.
Danny DeKeyser gave Detroit a 1-0 lead late in the first period and Trevor Daley scored to provide a two-goal cushion late in the second period. Jimmy Howard made 28 saves for the Red Wings, allowing only Noah Hanifin’s second-period goal.
JETS 5, STARS 3
DALLAS (AP) - Patrik Laine scored two goals, Dustin Byfuglien had three assists and Winnipeg scored five goals in the second period.
Michael Hutchinson, who has won both of his NHL starts this season, gave up Tyler Pitlick’s goal just 10 seconds into the game, but finished with 33 saves.
Winnipeg moved into a tie with Nashville atop the Central Division. The Jets have outscored opponents 29-12 in winning five of their last six.
Nikolaj Ehlers, Toby Enstrom and Mark Scheifele added goals for the Jets. Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov also scored for Dallas.
FLAMES 5, AVALANCHE 1
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Rookie Jon Gillies made 28 saves for his second straight victory, and Mikael Backlund had a goal and two assists in Calgary’s victory over Colorado.
Troy Brouwer added a goal and an assist to help the Flames move past idle St. Louis into the final Western Conference wild-card spot. Michael Frolik, Mark Giordano and Sean Monahan also scored, and Matthew Tkachuk had two assists.
Called up from Stockton of the AHL with starting goalie Mike Smith sidelined by a lower-body injury, Gillies made his second straight start and fourth appearance of the season. The 6-foot-6 former Providence College goalie beat Arizona 5-2 on Thursday night. Before the game, Smith was placed on injured reserve.
Nathan MacKinnon scored for Colorado.
DEVILS 2, ISLANDERS 1
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Kyle Palmieri scored two third-period goals and New Jersey opened some daylight on New York in the race for a wild-card playoff berth.
Taylor Hall extended his NHL-best points streak to 14 games with two assists, and Keith Kinkaid made 30 saves as the Devils maintained a five-point lead over Columbus in the race for the top wild-card spot, and increased their lead over the ninth-place Islanders to seven points.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak and allowed the sellout crowd to go home happy after the career scoring leader Patrik Elias’s No. 26 jersey was retired in a pregame ceremony.
Jordan Eberle scored in the second period for the Islanders.
COYOTES 2, DUCKS 0
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Antti Raanta made 26 saves for his second shutout in three games and Arizona held off Anaheim.
Max Domi’s empty-net goal sealed the win long after Jason Demers gave the Coyotes the lead less than six minutes into the game.
Arizona won for the sixth time in eight games and ended the Ducks’ four-game winning streak. The Coyotes had won four straight before falling to Calgary at home Thursday night.
FLYERS 5, SENATORS 3
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - Brandon Manning had a goal and two assists and Philadelphia beat Ottawa for its fifth consecutive victory.
Ivan Provorov, Robert Hagg, Claude Giroux and Nolan Patrick also scored, and Petr Mrazek made 25 saves in his second start since being acquired in a trade with Detroit.
Mike Hoffman, Ryan Dzingel and Matt Duchene scored for Ottawa.
BLUE JACKETS 3, BLACKHAWKS 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Josh Anderson scored in the third period, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots and Columbus beat Chicago.
Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and an assist, and Cam Atkinson also scored for the Blue Jackets.
David Kampf and Tomas Jurco scored for last-place Chicago in the second leg of a back-to-back. Rookie Anton Forsberg had 26 saves against his former team.
OILERS 4, KINGS 3
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ryan Strome’s empty-net goal at 19:01 of the third period and a successful coach’s challenge with less than 10 seconds left gave Edmonton a victory over Los Angeles.
Dustin Brown tipped in Drew Doughty’s shot to cut it to 4-3 with 18 seconds remaining, and the Kings appeared to tie it on another goal by Brown with 9.9 seconds to go. The play was initially ruled no goal on the ice and changed after a video review, but the Oilers challenged for goaltender interference and the goal was waived off.
Anton Slepyshev, Leon Draisaitl and Jujhar Khaira scored for the Oilers, who kept the Kings from moving back into playoff position. Cam Talbot made 30 saves.
Michael Cammalleri, who started the season with the Kings before being traded to the Oilers on Nov. 14, recorded three assists and has 10 in his last 11 games.
Tyler Toffoli and Tobias Rieder also scored for the Kings, who are two points behind Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division and two points behind Anaheim for the second Western Conference wild card.
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