Ovechkin, Capitals top Blue Jackets

WASHINGTON-- Alex Ovechkin climbed on the NHL all-time goals list, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 at Capital One Arena on Saturday.

With a tiebreaking goal at 19:22 of the second period, Ovechkin tied Mark Recchi for 20th in NHL history (577) and passed Jaromir Jagr and Mike Gartner for 10th in power-play goals (218).
"I didn't know nothing about it," Ovechkin said. "Capitals public relations]*
The Capitals (15-11-1) have won five of seven games. Braden Holtby made 32 saves, and Brett Connolly, Alex Chiasson and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for Washington.
Matt Calvert, Artemi Panarin and Zach Werenski scored for the Blue Jackets. Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for Columbus (17-9-1), which had won two in a row and is in first place in the Metropolitan Division.
"I never mention the word 'measuring stick' to our guys," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "We're playing some quality opponents right now. [Los Angeles] Kings are a quality opponent (a 5-2 loss Thursday). Columbus is a quality opponent. … Tonight, we jumped on them early and were able to use that to our advantage."
Connolly scored 1:03 into the first period when he one-timed a centering pass from Lars Eller to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead. Chiasson scored 1:03 later for a 2-0 advantage.

"We knew they were going to come hard. We just didn't have a good start," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. "We missed some checking. It cost us. But we battled back, a huge job to battle back."
After an Ovechkin turnover, Panarin skated in 2-on-0, but Holtby read his pass to Josh Anderson and stretched to make a pad save at the left post at 2:30 of the first period.
"That's a play where if a guy puts a good shot on it there's not really much a goalie can do, so you hope that they mess up a little bit," Holtby said. "But you know they're going to come back with something after a quick two goals. A good team always comes back with some sort of chance, some sort of pressure. Your goalie has to make a big play."
Holtby got a glove on Cam Atkinson's wrist shot from the slot at 16:11 of the third period to keep it 4-2.

Columbus pulled within 2-1 on a goal by Panarin at 3:51 of the second period. A shorthanded goal by Calvert, playing in his first game since Nov. 4 after missing 12 with an upper-body injury, tied it 2-2 at 16:28.
Ovechkin scored 10 seconds into a Washington power play for a 3-2 lead. He took a pass from John Carlson in the left face-off circle and calmly beat Bobrovsky for his 19th of the season and sixth goal in five games.
Kuznetsov made it 4-2 at 1:08 of the third period with his sixth goal in eight games.
"The game was very tight, especially [the] first two periods," Ovechkin said. "They have [an] advantage, we have [an] advantage. In the third period, it was [a] very important goal for us, [Kuznetsov] scored, and we knew when [Holtby] plays like that, it's very hard to score against him. He saved us."
Werenski made it 4-3 at 16:58 before Columbus had a final chance to tie the game. A shot by Dubois hit Holtby and dropped in the crease. Panarin was there, but Jay Beagle lifted his stick to prevent a tap in and cleared the puck off the line with 1:48 left.
"Poor [Panarin]," Foligno said. "If he wasn't celebrating, he would have tapped it in, if it wasn't in already. It's a tough one to swallow, but we've just got to be better than the start."

Goal of the game

Ovechkin's goal at 19:22 of the second period.

Save of the game

Holtby's save on Anderson at 2:30 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Beagle's clear off the goal line at 18:12 of the third period.

They said it

"I thought we showed some resiliency. We take two offensive-zone penalties back to back. Have a bad change on one goal. Those are the things that hurt you in this type of game. But I liked the way we kept on coming back and kept on grinding away." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella
"Braden was the reason we won. He was the best player on the ice tonight. I thought he fought through traffic. I thought he was really strong in a lot of areas. Made some huge saves." -- Capitals coach Barry Trotz

Need to know

Ovechkin is tied for the NHL goals lead with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov. … Capitals forward Chandler Stephenson left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury. ... Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara (upper body) was a late scratch.

What's next

Blue Jackets: Host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Capitals: Host the San Jose Sharks on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSWA, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)