Ovechkin passes 1,000 points as Caps top Pens
WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin scored two goals to surpass the 1,000-point mark for his career, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Wednesday night at Verizon Center for their seventh consecutive win.
Ovechkin's goal just 35 seconds in gave him 1,000 points, and he added a power-play tally in the second period. He is the 84th player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, the 37th to record 1,000 points with one team.
Braden Holtby stopped 30 shots for Washington (27-9-5). Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and three assists, and T.J. Oshie also registered three assists.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves for the Penguins (26-9-5), who had won five straight. Phil Kessel had two assists.
Washington improved to 14-2-2 in its past 18 games.
The Penguins outshot the Capitals 13-9 in the first period, but only Ovechkin found the back of the net.
Ovechkin came down the right side two-on-one with Backstrom. He kept the puck, crossed into the slot and fired past Fleury on the glove side. Backstrom and Oshie picked up the assists, and Ovechkin received a standing ovation from the Verizon Center crowd.
It was career goal No. 545 for Ovechkin, who moved past Maurice "The Rocket" Richard for sole possession of 29th place on the NHL's all-time goals list.
Ovechkin struck again at 8:06 of the second period on a power play when he took a feed in the left circle from John Carlson (two assists) and fired over Fleury's far shoulder for his 21st goal of the season. Fleury then skated away from the net and slammed his stick against the boards.
Evgeny Kuznetsov set up the third goal when started to skate behind Fleury, stopped and fed in front to Justin Williams, who tapped it in to make it 3-0 at 4:31 of the third period.
Evgeni Malkin scored his 17th goal of the season on a power play at 7:46 of the third to pull Pittsburgh back within two.
With a little over seven minutes left to play, Pittsburgh's Matt Cullen hit the crossbar on a short-handed breakaway attempt. Moments later, Ovechkin scored a power-play goal off a pretty pass from Oshie to make it 4-1.
Patric Hornqvist's power play goal with 2:36 left got the Penguins within 4-2 before Lars Eller's empty-netter.
NOTES: Capitals RW T.J. Oshie returned after missing one game with a lower-body injury. D Taylor Chorney was scratched. ... Washington's Barry Trotz coached his 1,401st game, passing Pat Quinn for eighth place on the all-time NHL games coached list. ... Penguins G Matt Murray, who missed two games with a lower-body injury, was cleared to return and served as the back-up with G Tristan Jarry going down to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. ... The Penguins called up D David Warsofsky, who was scratched along with D Chad Ruhwedel (illness) and RW Tom Kuhnhackl. ... The teams meet again Monday night in Pittsburgh.