Ovechkin scores twice, Capitals defeat Islanders

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Alex Ovechkin scored two goals for the Washington Capitals in a 4-1 win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday.

Nic Dowd and Aliaksei Protas each scored his first goal of the season for Washington (7-4-2), which was coming off a 4-2 win at the New Jersey Devils on Friday and is 6-1-1 in its past eight games. Hunter Shepard made 36 saves in his second NHL start (first since Oct. 25).

“Everybody was all in. It was back-to-back. We played against a good team. We all knew it wasn’t going to be so easy,” Ovechkin said. “Everybody played smart. Everybody played simple. Shepard today was unbelievable. Huge saves. Our defense did a good job at blocking shots.”

Washington blocked 32 shots compared to just 11 for New York.

“They just battled. You see guys selling out and blocking shots,” Shepard said. “You get stuck out there sometimes. If I make a bad play behind the net, and then we get stuck in our zone for a minute and a half ... it’s amazing when you’re so tied, and the body just takes over. The guys were awesome tonight.”

Alexander Romanov scored, and Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves for New York (5-5-3), which has lost four in a row (0-3-1).

“At certain parts of the year, you're going to go through adversity, and we're going through it right now,” Islanders forward Bo Horvat said. “I mean, I thought, obviously, we had our chances tonight. It's just a matter of it going in for us. Right now, we got to bear down around the net, obviously, and start scoring some goals.”

Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 9:18 of the first period. Evgeny Kuznetsov won a face-off back to Ovechkin, who scored just inside the post under the glove of Varlamov from the left circle.

It was Ovechkin's first even-strength goal this season (one power-play goal, two into an empty net).

Romanov tied it 1-1 at 19:17, shooting into an open net after Shepard got caught out of position.

Dowd responded for Washington to make it 2-1 at 13:05 of the second period. Varlamov made a highlight-reel save by diving to get his glove on a rebound attempt from Nicolas Aube-Kubel, but Dowd batted in the rebound in the crease.

“We have some decisions that are made and some errors that are made that are really costing us,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “There's a change on the second goal that can't happen. So these types of things, when you make these mistakes, you find yourself on the losing end. ... How do you get out of it? You've got to stop making those mistakes.”

Protas pushed it to 3-1 at 19:20 of the second, taking a pass from Matthew Phillips and scoring five-hole after he was left all alone in front.

“Those second and third goals, to not only take the lead, but the third one even by Protas, Phillips makes a great play. Those are big," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "Now you can play from in front and what it does, as you can see what happens tonight, the Islanders had a ton of good looks, a lot of offensive zone time, but they are pressing, right? They're throwing things to the net, and now you are forcing the issue.”

Ovechkin scored into an empty net with five seconds remaining for the 4-1 final.

NOTES: Ovechkin is the fourth player in Capitals history to have a multigoal game at the age of 38 or older, joining Adam Oates, Sergei Fedorov and Mike Knuble. ... Islanders forward Pierre Engvall, who was scratched in a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday, was minus-2 in 16:45 of ice time.