Ovechkin scores No. 699 in Capitals loss to Canadiens

WASHINGTON-- Alex Ovechkin scored his 699th NHL goal, but the Washington Capitals lost to the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in overtime at Capital One Arena on Thursday.

Ben Chiarot scored his second goal of the game on a one-timer from the slot 58 seconds into overtime.
"We've had our ups and downs, but he's been fairly consistent," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "He's been a great addition. His size (6-foot-3, 225 pounds). His grit. You don't expect that from him, but he's already scored a couple or overtime goals."
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Capitals highlights]
Tom Wilson scored for Washington with two seconds left in the third period to tie it 3-3.
Lars Eller scored, and Braden Holtby made 28 saves for Washington (37-17-6), which has lost three straight and is tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Ovechkin, who had not scored in five games, is one goal from becoming the eighth player to score 700 in the NHL.
"You know we make some strides in certain directions that are positive and then we fail in other areas. It's no secret, we are going through a struggle right now," Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. "We didn't play well enough to be able to get two points against really any team in this league, so we need to play better."

Shea Weber and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (28-27-8), which won for the first time in six games. Carey Price made 29 saves.
"We had very few lapses in our game tonight," Price said. "I thought overall we played with a lot of poise."
Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 7:29 of the first period when he controlled the puck after a face-off and scored with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle. It was his 41st goal of the season, his first since a hat trick Feb. 4.
The forward was double-shifted and played 8:03 in the third period.
"When you're going through struggles in the game and you're not really carrying the play like we want to, then you just try to spur on different things or try to look for different looks," Reirden said. "I went with the one shift with him with our fourth line and he gets a chance right around the front of the net. He obviously scores off the face-off, and you're hoping that we can get the next one and move forward on this."
Weber tied it 1-1 with a slap shot from the point at 17:43 of the first. Eller gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 17:03 of the second period. As Eller skated out from behind the net, teammate Brett Kulak deflected the puck into the air and Eller batted it in.

Gallagher scored during a scramble to make it 2-2 at 18:37.
"They play a difficult brand to play against," Wilson said. "They've got some skill and speed. But I think we started pretty well. Just those goals that are going in kind of at the wrong times of the games to kill our momentum."
Chiarot gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead with a wrist shot from the slot 30 seconds into the third period off a pass from Tomas Tatar.
"I was kind of right down low there and I just saw some room in the one side of the net and just tried to shoot it as hard as I can and it found its way in," Chiarot said.

They said it

"I thought [the defensemen], they really handled themselves well at five when we lost Xavier [Ouellet]. I thought they did a great job, but also I think our forwards did a great job in coming back and helping tonight and making their job a little bit easier because it could have been a lot harder." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"I'm seeing way too many turnovers right now. You can see when we get the puck deep, we create some offense. Especially against a team like this who have five guys back and they backcheck really hard with a lot of speed, you've got to get it deep. You've got to make them make mistakes. It was too easy of a game for them." -- Capitals forward Carl Hagelin

Need to know

Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon, acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, was minus-2 playing 20:22 in his Washington debut. ... The Canadiens played with five defensemen after Ouellet left the game with an upper-body injury in the first period following a hit by Garnet Hathaway. ... Canadiens forward Artturi Lehkonen was a healthy scratch and missed his first game of the season. ... Tatar has six points (one goal, five assists) in three games against Washington this season. ... Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov had an assist playing 18:28 after missing three games with an upper-body injury.

What's next

Canadiens: At the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, CITY, SNE, TVAS, NHL.TV)
Capitals: At the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; MSG+, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)