Washington’s Alex Ovechkin celebrates his third-period goal Monday against the Sabres at Buffalo, N.Y. It was Ovechkin’s 717th career goal, tying Phil Esposito. Jeffrey T. Barnes/Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Alexander Ovechkin matched Phil Esposito for sixth on the NHL’s career list with his 717th goal and the Washington Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-0 on Monday night.
Ovechkin scored in the third period, helping send the Capitals to their fifth straight win with his 1,299th career point – one shy of becoming the 35th player to reach 1,300.
He scored from the slot off a pass from Conor Sheary, who found Ovechkin cutting toward the net. Ovechkin snapped a quick shot past Carter Hutton, who was screened.
Vitek Vanecek stopped 23 shots and improved to 4-0-1 against the Sabres.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, Richard Panik, Daniel Sprong and Garnet Hathaway also scored for Washington, which used three goals in the second period to move to within two points of the New York Islanders in the Eastern Division.
Hutton made 24 saves for Buffalo, which is 0-9-2 in its past 11 games, the third-longest skid in team history. The Sabres are 0-8-1 in their past nine home games, the second-longest winless streak in franchise history behind the 12-game slump when they went 0-6-1 with five ties between Jan. 10 to March 27, 1991.
FLYERS 5, RANGERS 4: Jakub Voracek scored at 3:47 of overtime to give Philadelphia a win at New York.
Claude Giroux, Joel Farabee and Ivan Provorov each had a goal and an assist, and James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Flyers, who won for the third time in eight games.
ean Couturier and Voracek each had two assists, and Carter Hart finished with 20 saves.
Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists in the Rangers’ three-goal second period, and Colin Blackwell, Julien Gauthier and Kevin Rooney also scored. Keith Kinkaid, starting for the second straight game, stopped 25 shots.
Rangers D Adam Fox and F Pavel Buchnevich were added to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list earlier in the day. They joined F Phillip Di Guiseppe, who was added to the list Sunday.
CANUCKS 3, SENATORS 2: J.T Miller scored in overtime and Thatcher Demko made 44 saves as visiting Vancouver beat Ottawa.
Miller beat a defenseman and then deked Joey Daccord before scoring the winner 1:40 into overtime.
Jayce Hawryluk and Tanner Pearson scored in regulation for Vancouver.
Josh Norris and Colin White scored for Ottawa.
PANTHERS 6, BLACKHAWKS 3: Aleksander Barkov scored a tie-breaking short-handed goal in the third period, and host Florida beat slumping Chicago.
Barkov poked in a loose puck from right in front with 6:34 left. It was the Panthers’ first short-handed goal this season.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots and won his sixth straight start. Down 3-1, the Panthers scored five unanswered goals to win their fourth straight game.
NOTES
CANADIENS: Defenseman Ben Chiarot could miss the rest of the regular season after undergoing surgery for a fractured hand.
The operation was at Montreal General Hospital and he is expected to miss 6 to 8 weeks, the team said.
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