Ovechkin ends goal drought in OT, Capitals top Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Alex Ovechkin ended a 14-game goal drought on a power play at 4:07 of overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.

The goal from the left circle was Ovechkin's first since Nov. 18 in a 4-3 victory against Columbus. It was the longest drought of Ovechkin's NHL career.

“It’s been a while; I’ll take it,” Ovechkin said. “I had pretty good chances in the first and the second as well, obviously. Sometimes you have to keep pushing and keep grinding.”

Anthony Mantha scored twice, and John Carlson had three assists for the Capitals (17-9-4), who were coming off a 3-2 overtime victory against the New York Islanders on Wednesday and won their third straight. Charlie Lindgren made 34 saves.

Washington is 6-0-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season. Each win was on the road.

“This one was right up there with the most challenging that we’ve had this year,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “You could just tell in that third period, and we talked about it, we knew what was coming. We were just in the situation last night and we had nothing in the tank physically and mentally, so we were just trying to find a way to hang on and got our way through that third period.”

Yegor Chinakhov and Cole Sillinger scored for the Blue Jackets (11-17-6), who have alternated wins and losses in their past seven games. Elvis Merzlikins made 29 saves.

The Capitals went on the power play at 2:42 of overtime when Merzlikins was given a roughing penalty following a skirmish with Tom Wilson inside the net.

“You knew what was going on there,” Carbery said. “Merzlikins was trying to create an odd-man rush and get in his way subtly obviously, but for [Wilson] to hold his composure and draw the power play there, arguably you could say, was the difference in the game.”

Mantha gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 18:24 of the first period with a power-play goal, redirecting a shot by Ovechkin.

Sillinger tied it 1-1 at 15:18 of the second period by tipping a shot from the right circle by Emil Bemstrom.

Mantha put the Capitals back ahead 2-1 at 17:24, scoring from the slot off a pass from Aliaksei Protas.

Chinakhov tied it 2-2 at 12:49 of the third period from the top of the right circle. It was his sixth goal in the past six games, and extended his point streak to six games (six goals, four assists).

Merzlikins made three saves during the final power play before Ovechkin scored his sixth goal of the season. It was Ovechkin’s 828th regular-season goal, joining Wayne Gretzky (1,016) as the second player in NHL history to have 900 career goals in the regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs combined.

Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said Merzlikins’ penalty was “unacceptable.”

“The whole game, we played a solid 60 minutes. We played really well. I thought we took over the game,” Vincent said. “Disappointing because we earned the right to win that game, and that incident cost us. We have to control our emotions there.

“Tom Wilson's job is to get in people's faces and get in the goalie's face. He's creating a lot of emotions. The emotions were high. He did what he had to do, and we reacted. It cost us the game.”

NOTES: It was Ovechkin’s 135th career game-winning goal in the regular season and playoffs combined, passing Brett Hull for the second in NHL history. Jaromir Jagr has the most with 151. … The Blue Jackets had scored 18 goals in their previous three games.