Ovechkin scores twice, Capitals defeat Flames for 3rd straight win

CALGARY -- Alex Ovechkin scored two goals, including his 20th of the season, to help the Washington Capitals to a 5-2 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.

Ovechkin is the sixth player in NHL history to score at least 20 goals in a season 19 times, joining Gordie Howe (22), Ron Francis (20), Brendan Shanahan (19), Dave Andreychuk (19) and Jaromir Jagr (19). He also became the third to do so in 19 consecutive seasons, along with Howe (22) and Shanahan (19).

"That's pretty impressive, I think," Washington forward Dylan Strome said. "It's impressive. He's a world-class player. He's a Hall of Famer. There's not many things that hasn't been said about him, but he keeps doing it, even at age 38. It's fun to be a part of, fun to watch."

Ovechkin is the only player in NHL history to reach the mark from the start of his career. He has 843 career goals, 51 behind Gretzky (894) for the most in League history.

"We're all cheering for him," Washington forward Hendrix Lapierre said. "Everyone's super happy when he scores. Obviously, everyone's super happy when everyone scores, but I feel like there's a little something extra with 'O.' And it was two really big goals tonight, too. We're just super happy for him and we're just trying to help him in this chase. He's looking pretty [darn] good.”

Strome and Tom Wilson each had a goal and an assist, and Lapierre scored for the Capitals (33-25-9), who won their third straight and moved into the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Charlie Lindgren made 34 saves.

"It's a great feeling," Ovechkin said. "We know it's not going to be easy. We keep fighting, keep playing. We'll go game by game."

MacKenzie Weegar and Kevin Rooney scored, and Dustin Wolf made 28 saves for the Flames (33-30-5), who had won two in a row.

"Five-on-5, I thought we did some things that we liked," Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. "I don't think we did a good enough job special team-wise. For me, that was the difference in the game. Both our power play in not generating anything for us, but also giving them momentum, and our penalty kill did that, too."

Strome gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 14:59 of the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle past Wolf's glove.

Ovechkin extended it to 2-0 at 5:58 of the second period when he redirected Max Pacioretty's centering pass on the power play for his 20th goal of the season.

"Consistency ... not just from the scoring part, but also him being in the lineup and being durable and him being able to play game after game after game all these years," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "Happy for him. He gets his 20th and 21st, and they were huge. We needed every single bit of those two goals tonight."

Ovechkin made it 3-0 at 9:16 with a one-timer from the top of the right circle for another power-play goal. He has scored a goal against 174 goaltenders, the third most by a player in NHL history behind Jagr (178) and Patrick Marleau (177).

"I'm sure there'll be a couple more," Wolf said. "It's pretty special to play against a guy like that, and obviously didn't get the result, but that was pretty fun."

Rooney cut it to 3-1 at 10:41 by tipping in Brayden Pachal's backhand from the slot. The goal was upheld after Washington’s challenge for goaltender interference was unsuccessful.

Lapierre pushed it to 4-1 at 14:22 when he scored off a long, looping backhand pass from Sonny Milano.

"Sonny does some crazy things out there with the puck," Strome said. "We're going to call that the alley-oop, I think, from that one. He threw it up there and ‘Lappy’ made a great play to hit it off of one bounce and put it upstairs. There's nothing much the goalie can do there on that one."

Weegar made it 4-2 at 7:13 of the third period, skating into the high slot and beating Lindgren with a slap shot glove side.

Wilson scored into an empty net at 17:31 for the 5-2 final.

"We knew that they were sort of in the same position we are," Weegar said. "I wouldn't necessarily say they were a more desperate team because I thought we did play a good game 5-on-5. They obviously got some good bounces on the power play. I thought our power play, we needed to get one or two there, for sure. I thought our compete and effort was there 5-on-5."

NOTES: The Capitals, who are 10-4-1 in their past 15 games, hadn't held a playoff spot since Jan. 2. ... Ovechkin has 170 multigoal games, second in NHL history behind Gretzky (189). He also has had a multigoal game against 94 goalies, the most in NHL history. ... Ovechkin has 128 game-winning goals, trailing only Jagr (135) for the most in NHL history. ... Weegar, who had a game-high six shots on goal, is third in the NHL in goals by a defenseman (16). He trails Cale Makar and Roman Josi, who are tied for first with 17.