Lars Eller and Nic Dowd each scored a goal early in the third period and captain Alex Ovechkin added career goal No. 878, lifting the host Washington Capitals to a 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Ovechkin scored for the third time in as many games by putting the puck into an empty net with one second remaining in the third period. The three-time Hart Memorial Trophy recipient’s team-leading 25th goal of the season moved him 17 goals away from breaking Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record.
Dowd had two assists to go along with his goal, Andrew Mangiapane and Aliaksei Protas each collected one of each and Tom Wilson added a short-handed tally.
Logan Thompson made 30 saves as the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals snapped a two-game skid overall and extended their home point streak to 14 games (10-0-4).
Florida’s Sam Bennett recorded a goal and an assist, and captain Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk also scored.
Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 20 shots for the Atlantic Division-leading Panthers, who saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt.
Eller converted a partial breakaway to give Washington a 3-2 lead at 2:19 of the third period before Mangiapane’s centering feed was deposited home by Dowd at 6:10
Tkachuk wired a shot from the right circle that handcuffed Thompson to halve the Panthers’ deficit 96 seconds later. However, Protas and Ovechkin sealed the win by scoring empty-netters.
Mangiapane wired a sharp shot from the left circle that sailed just inside the near post to open the scoring with 5:52 remaining in the first period.
Florida forged a 1-1 tie with 30 seconds remaining after forcing a turnover in the offensive end. Jesper Boqvist neatly backhanded a centering feed to Bennett, who cleaned up his own rebound for his 17th goal of the season.
With his team short-handed, Wilson forced a turnover in his own end before converting a return pass across the slot from Protas to give Washington a 2-1 lead at 1:15 of the second period.
Barkov responded just under three minutes later by converting a partial breakaway. Barkov’s 13th goal of the season extended his point streak to four games.
–Field Level Media
