WASHINGTON— Alex Ovechkin scored his 699th career goal, closing in on another milestone, but the Washington Capitals dropped their third in a row, losing to the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in overtime Thursday night.

Ovechkin fired up the crowd by scoring seven minutes in and came close to reaching 700 goals on a bang-bang play in the third period. Instead, he’ll have to wait to become the eighth player in NHL history to get to 700.

Washington has lost five of its past six games and 7 of 10, falling out of first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Capitals are also 1-4-1 at home since the All-Star break.

Ben Chiarot scored his second of the game 58 seconds into OT for Montreal.

Goaltender Braden Holtby allowed goals to Shea Weber, Brendan Gallagher and two to Chiarot on 32 shots, but wasn’t chiefly responsible for the loss. The same defensive woes that plagued the Capitals over the past several weeks came back to haunt them against the Canadiens.

Montreal got two breakaways in the opening minutes and could’ve had a multigoal lead if not for big saves by Holtby, who continues to play well.

MAPLE LEAFS 4, PENGUINS 0: Jake Muzzin had a goal and two assists, Frederik Andersen made 24 saves and Toronto won at home.

Toronto bounced back nicely after dropping 3 of 4, including a 5-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Tuesday. It was Andersen’s second shutout of the season and No. 18 for his career.

William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen and Zach Hyman also scored for Toronto, which moved back into third place in the Atlantic Division. John Tavares added two assists.

Matt Murray made 26 stops for Pittsburgh, which suffered its most lopsided loss of the season.

DEVILS 2, SHARKS 1: Mackenzie Blackwood made 36 saves in winning his fifth straight start and as New Jersey topped visiting San Jose.

Defenseman P.K. Subban scored the winner on a power play early in the third period. Jesper Bratt had the other New Jersey goal. Nikita Gusev had assists on both.

Defenseman Tim Heed scored for San Jose in the opener of its four-game trip.

FLYERS 4, BLUE JACKETS 3: Kevin Hayes scored 3:51 into overtime to give Philadelphia a win at Columbus, Ohio.

Philadelphia trailed 3-1 before Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Claude Giroux scored 1:26 apart in the second period. After a scoreless third, Hayes snapped a shot from the slot past Elvis Merzlikins for his 19th of the season.

NOTES

PANTHERS: Roberto Luongo — arguably the most popular player in Florida Panthers history — will soon become the first player in team history to have his number retired.

Luongo, who retired on June 26 after a stellar 20-year career, will have his No. 1 jersey raised to the rafters at BB&T Center on March 7 against his hometown team — the Montreal Canadiens.

The Panthers previously retired two other numbers — 93 for the team’s first president, Bill Torrey, to commemorate the franchise’s inaugural game in 1993, and 37 in honor of franchise founder H. Wayne Huizenga, who passed away on March 22, 2018. That number was selected by the Huizenga family in recognition of his birth year and lucky number.

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