Washington: Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach and exceed the 1,000-point plateau, leading the Washington Capitals to a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.
Becoming the 84th player in NHL history to hit the milestone, Ovechkin put the team on his back as Washington won their seventh consecutive game and snapped Pittsburgh’s winning streak at five.
“I was thinking about it before the game, everybody’s here, it would be nice to get the 1000th point at home,” said Ovechkin, who scored his 999th career NHL point on Monday in Montreal and had his family and friends at Verizon Center arena. “It’s a pretty special moment, a pretty amazing moment.”
Justin Williams, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller also scored, and Braden Holtby made 30 saves.
Evgeni Malkin, who was picked second behind Ovechkin in 2004, and Patric Hornqvist scored for Pittsburgh.
Jason Demers scored the tiebreaking goal early in the second period, Roberto Luongo stopped 29 shots and the Florida Panthers held on against the New York Islanders to win 2-1.
Keith Yandle also scored for Florida, who won for the fourth time in six games.
Nick Leddy had the Islanders’ goal and Thomas Greiss finished with 22 saves. New York, in the midst of a stretch of seven of eight on the road, lost for the fourth time in five games (1-2-2). The Islanders have managed just one goal in each of their last three games.
The Panthers made their first visit to Brooklyn since losing to the Islanders in the second overtime of the series-clinching Game 6 of the first round of the play-offs last April 24.
Phillip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen each scored twice and the Montreal Canadiens dominated the Winnipeg Jets 7-4.
Tomas Plekanec and Sven Andrighetto, with his first of the season, also had goals for the Canadiens. Shea Weber had a pair of assists, and Al Montoya, playing against his former team, made 22 saves.
Connor Hellebuyck allowed three goals on seven shots in his sixth straight start before being replaced by Michael Hutchinson late in the first period. Hutchinson stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced.
Mark Scheifele scored twice, Mathieu Perreault had a goal and assist and Bryan Little had his seventh of the season for Winnipeg.
Dougie Hamilton scored at 17:41 of the third period to lead the Calgary Flames 3-2 over the San Jose Sharks.
Hamilton and rookie Matthew Tkachuk each finished with a goal and an assist for the Flames, and Michael Frolik also scored. Mikael Backlund added a pair of assists.
Making his third straight start for the Flames, Chad Johnson stopped 25 shots to pick up his 15th win of the season.
Brent Burns had a goal and an assist for the Sharks, while Logan Couture also scored.
Making just his sixth start of the season, San Jose’s Aaron Dell made 25 saves in the loss.
