WASHINGTON (AP) -Alex Ovechkin scored his fourth goal of the night with 1:26 left in overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
Ovechkin finished with four goals and one assist for five points, but the last one was the biggest. He took a crossing pass from Jeff Schultz and beat Montreal goalie Cristobal Huet from in front for the overtime goal.
It was Ovechkin’s second career four-goal and five-point game. He did it on Dec. 29 at Ottawa. Ovechkin leads the NHL with 43 goals, and took over the points lead with 70.
The All-Star scored Washington’s first, third, fourth and fifth goals. He also assisted on Viktor Kozlov’s goal. Kozlov finished with a goal and two assists.
The Capitals couldn’t hold a 3-0 second-period lead and a 4-2 edge in the third. Montreal rallied and forced overtime when Guillaume Latendresse poked home a loose puck with 32.6 seconds left in regulation after the Canadiens pulled Huet for an extra attacker.
Hurricanes 3, Maple Leafs 2, OT
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Carolina captain Rod Brind’Amour scored with 1:40 left in overtime to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 win over Toronto.
Scott Walker had a goal and an assist and Tim Gleason also scored for Carolina.
Toronto captain Mats Sundin scored with 11.4 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.
Brind’Amour’s game-winner came on the power play after Nikolai Antropov took a hooking penalty with 2:26 left.
Toronto took an early 1-0 lead 3:20 into the game when Jiri Tlusty beat goalkeeper Cam Ward with a blast from the slot. The Maple Leafs took advantage of an odd-man rush that left Ward with almost no defensive help.
Bruins 4, Senators 1
OTTAWA (AP) – Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Marc Savard scored early in the first period to help Boston win its third straight and snap Ottawa’s two-game winning streak.
Kessel and Lucic scored 2:50 apart as Boston jumped out to a two-goal lead 3:18 in. Savard, who extended his assists and points streaks to nine games each on Kessel’s goal 28 seconds in, made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal at 8:21.
Chuck Kobasew scored into an empty net with 23 seconds remaining and a delayed penalty signaled against Ottawa.
Tim Thomas made 30 saves for Boston.
Antoine Vermette ruined Thomas’ shutout bid with 8:24 remaining when he scored his 12th goal on a power play.
Kings 3, Islanders 1
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) – Rob Blake scored a rare power-play goal for Los Angeles in the third period, and Jason LaBarbera made 28 saves to lift the suddenly surging Kings over slumping New York.
Matt Moulson also scored for the Kings, who still have an NHL-low 45 points. They are 6-2-1 in their last nine and have three points through two games of their eight-game, 15-day road trip. Alexander Frolov sealed it with an empty-netter with 41 seconds left.
Bryan Berard scored for the Islanders, who lost their sixth straight at home (0-4-2). New York is 4-6-4 in its last 14 and dropped below the playoff cutoff in the Eastern Conference.
Rangers 4, Flyers 0
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Steve Valiquette made 20 saves in his first career shutout to help the Rangers beat the Flyers, New York’s first road win in more than a month.
Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha, Chris Drury and Brendan Shanahan scored for the Rangers, squashing the momentum of a Flyers team that was on a 12-2-1 streak.
Valiquette was hardly tested after the first period but still blanked a Flyers team that hadn’t scored fewer than three goals in a game since Jan. 4. He picked up only his third win of the season and first shutout in 21 career games.
Lightning 4, Canucks 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Brad Richards had a goal and two assists, leading Tampa Bay past Vancouver.
Richards gave the Lightning a 4-2 lead on his goal from the right circle at 8:34 of the third as Tampa Bay won for just the sixth time in the past 17 games. Alexander Edler’s power-play goal got the Canucks within 4-3 with 24.1 seconds left.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Vinny Prospal, Chris Gratton and Vincent Lecavalier. Martin St. Louis had three assists.
Luc Bourdon and Taylor Pyatt also scored for Vancouver, which has lost eight of 10.
Predators 4, Blue Jackets 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – J.P. Dumont extended the longest current points streak in the NHL to 16 games with two assists and Nashville beat Columbus.
Alexander Radulov, Jason Arnott, Vernon Fiddler and Scott Nichol scored goals for the Predators.
Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche scored for the Blue Jackets.
Nashville goalie Chris Mason stopped 31 shots.
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