NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his , but the New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 on Sunday.
Marc Gatcomb had two goals, Bo Horvat and Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored, and Kyle MacLean had two assists for the Islanders, who won their second straight after losing six in a row. Ilya Sorokin stopped 28 shots.
Charlie Lindgren finished with 18 saves for the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals, who lost for the fifth time in seven games (2-4-1).
Ovechkin pulled the Capitals to 2-1 as he , breaking a tie with Wayne Gretzky. The UBS Arena crowd — with a large contingent of Capitals fans — let out a large roar as Ovechkin took a few steps toward the blue line and dove on the ice with his teammates mobbing him.
Gatcomb got his second of the game to restore the Islanders’ two-goal lead with 9:34 remaining in the second.
Pageau made it 4-1 at 4:20 of the third with a goal awarded after a review showed Lindgren pushed the puck across the line after initially making the save on the in-close attempt.
Horvat gave the Islanders a as he beat Lindgren from the right circle for his 26th of the season.
Gatcomb doubled the lead at 9:00 as he charged to the net and deflected MacLean’s centring pass past Lindgren.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Sunday:
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WILD 3 STARS 2 (OT)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Marco Rossi scored on a power play 58 seconds into overtime for Minnesota, who stopped a four-game losing streak by beating Dallas.
Matt Boldy, who scored early in the third period and assisted on Marcus Foligno’s go-ahead goal less than two minutes later, drew a tripping penalty on Jason Robertson to give the Wild a 4-on-3. Boldy and Mats Zuccarello set up Rossi’s tap-in.
Thomas Harley’s shot from the blue line that bounced off Wild defenceman Zach Bogosian tied the game for the Stars with 6:55 remaining in regulation.
Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves for the Wild, who lead Calgary by six points for the last spot in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Wild have four games left, including a crucial one in Calgary on Friday. The Flames have six games remaining.
Robertson’s 34th goal of the season on Mikko Rantanen’s 53rd assist gave Dallas an early lead, after their seven-game winning streak ended a day earlier .
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SENATORS 4 BLUE JACKETS 0
OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Linus Ullmark made 30 saves for Ottawa’s second straight shutout and the Senators moved to the brink of their first playoff appearance since 2017, beating Columbus for their third straight victory.
With five games left, Ottawa holds the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference — five points ahead of Montreal. The Canadiens beat Nashville 2-1 on Sunday.
Adam Gaudette and Nikolas Matinpalo — with his first NHL goal — scored early in the first period in the opener of a home-and-home set. David Perron and Shane Pinto, into an empty net, also scored, and Thomas Chabot had two assists.
Columbus has lost three straight.
Gaudette opened the scoring at 2:24 of the first period, and Matinpalo connected at 4:26. That goal chased Daniil Tarasov from the Columbus net after just six shots on goal. Elvis Merzlikins took over and stopped 22 of 23 shots.
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RED WINGS 2 PANTHERS 1
DETROIT (AP) — Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher scored in the second period and Cam Talbot finished with 32 saves to help Detroit keep its fading playoff hopes alive with a 2-1 win over Florida.
The Panthers put their goaltender on the bench to add an extra skater and Anton Lundell scored with 39.9 seconds to pull them within a goal.
Detroit has just six games remaining in the regular season to rally into a wild-card spot to end a nine-year post-season drought.
The defending champion and short-handed Panthers have lost five straight for the first time since 2017.
Following a sluggish first period, DeBrincat scored on a power play for his 35th goal of the season and Compher put Detroit up 2-0 midway through the period.
Vitek Vanecek stopped 22 saves and gave Sergei Bobrovsky the night off one day after he made 19 saves in a .
The Panthers had a flurry of shots late, but couldn’t put the puck past Talbot to tie the game.
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BLACKHAWKS 3 PENGUINS 1
CHICAGO (AP) — Ilya Mikheyev scored twice, Frank Nazar added a goal and Spencer Knight stopped 28 shots as Chicago snapped a five-game skid with a win over Pittsburgh.
Rickard Rakell scored on a power play and Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves for the Penguins, who have lost five of their last seven games.
After a scoreless first period, Nazar gave Chicago the lead with a short-handed goal at 18:55 of the second. It was Nazar’s ninth of the season and came off Teuvo Teravainen’s 42nd assist.
Mikheyev stretched the Blackhawks’ lead to 2-0, scoring on a wrist shot at 9:40 of the third. Connor Bedard and Sam Rinzel assisted. He added an empty-netter with 56 seconds remaining.
Rakell pulled Pittsburgh within a goal at 14:36 of the third, matching his career high with his 34th goal of the season. Bryan Rust and Ville Koivunen picked up assists.
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SABRES 6 BRUINS 4
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Tage Thompson had a hat trick, Jason Zucker scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Buffalo beat Boston for its fourth straight victory.
Thompson extended his scoring streak to four games with his first goal in the second period after the Bruins took an early 2-0 lead. Thompson scored again on a breakaway early in the third period, and got his 43rd goal of the season into the empty net in the final minute.
Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin each had a goal and an assist. Peyton Krebs and Bowen Byram each had two assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 18 saves.
David Pastrnak assisted on all three goals for Boston, and Elias Lindholm got his 600th NHL point with a goal in the first period. Morgan Geekie and Casey Mittelstadt also scored. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 31 shots.
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CANADIENS 2 PREDATORS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Cole Caufield and Patrik Laine scored in the second period to rally Montreal to a 2-1 victory over Nashville.
Jakub Dobes turned back 36 shots for the Canadiens, who extended their winning streak to five games after a five-game skid.
Steven Stamkos scored and Juuse Saros made 15 saves for Nashville, which was scoreless on four power plays and lost its sixth straight and for the seventh time in eight games.
Stamkos opened the scoring at 4:19 into the first off a feed from Filip Forsberg for his 25th of the season.
Caufield converted a pass from Nick Suzuki less than two minutes into the second period, tying the score at 1. It was Caufield’s 36th goal of the season. Laine scored the go-ahead goal, his 20th of the season, just over four minutes later.
Nashville’s Matthew Wood made his NHL debut. The 20-year-old winger, the 15th overall pick in the 2023 draft, finished with one shot in just over 13 minutes.
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GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3 CANUCKS 2
VANCOUVER, B.C. (AP) — Victor Olofsson broke a 2-2 tie with 3:14 left off William Karlsson’s nifty feed from behind the net and Vegas beat Vancouver.
Vegas increased its Pacific Division lead over Los Angeles to five points, with the Golden Knights playing one more game than the Kings. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is eight points out of a playoff berth with four games to go.
Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy also scored for the Golden Knights, and Adin Hill stopped 19 shots. Nils Hoglander and Aatu Raty replied for the Canucks, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 32 shots.
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The Associated Press
