MONTREAL — Alex Ovechkin tied Canadiens great Maurice “Rocket” Richard with his 544th career goal and had two assists, leading the Washington Capitals to a 4-1 victory over Montreal on Monday night for their sixth straight win.

Ovechkin, who has won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league’s goal-scoring leader six times, tied Richard for 29th place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list. His three points moved him with one of 1,000.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Brett Connolly and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for Washington, and Braden Holtby finished with 22 saves. Holtby’s career-best shutout streak ended at 169 minutes 12 seconds when Tomas Plekanec scored at 7:18 of the third period.

PANTHERS 3, DEVILS 0: Roberto Luongo made 28 saves for his 73rd career shutout, leading Florida to a win at Newark, New Jersey.

Luongo, tops among active goalies in shutouts, got his first of the season to move three behind Ed Belfour and Tony Esposito for ninth all time. Retired Devils great Martin Brodeur holds the NHL record with 125.

Reilly Smith, Jussi Jokinen and Vincent Trocheck scored for Florida, which won for the third time in five games.

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JETS 2, FLAMES 0: Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for his third shutout of the season as Winnipeg won at home.

Dustin Byfuglien and Blake Wheeler scored for the Jets, winners of three of their last four games. Hellebuyck now has five shutouts in his two-year NHL career.

Chad Johnson stopped 25 shots for the Flames.

NOTES

BLUE JACKETS: Columbus waived backup goalie Curtis McElhinney after a disastrous weekend performance.

To replace McElhinney, Columbus recalled 24-year-old Anton Forsberg from the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. If the 33-year-old McElhinney clears waivers, he’ll be sent to Cleveland.

McElhinney was in goal on Saturday night when the Blue Jackets fell to the New York Rangers, who rallied from a 4-1 deficit and scored the winning goal with 17 seconds left. Before that, he was 2-0-2 this season starting in place of Sergei Bobrovsky.


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