Ovechkin scores No. 797, Capitals hold off Jets

WINNIPEG -- Alex Ovechkin scored his 797th NHL goal in the Washington Capitals' fourth straight win, 5-2 against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Sunday.

Ovechkin got his 17th of the season when he scored into an empty net at 17:48 of the third period to make it 5-2. He is five goals shy of passing Gordie Howe (801) for second on the NHL's all-time list. Wayne Gretzky is the all-time leader with 894.
"For the most part, I thought we kept [Ovechkin] at bay," Jets defenseman Neal Pionk said. "He got the empty net but for the most part, we kept him at bay."
"He's going to get his chances. He's going to get his shots."

Marcus Johansson scored on a penalty shot during a four-goal second period, and Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves for the Capitals (14-12-4) who are 5-1-1 in their past seven games.
"We had a pretty solid first period, I thought, and then our power play came up big," Lindgren said. "[Johansson] with the big penalty shot goal. To score four goals, as a goalie you love it. Credit to our guys again for competing tonight and working hard and putting the puck in the net."
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Adam Lowry scored for the Jets (18-8-1), who had won four in a row. Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves.
"They play fast," Dubois said. "Their breakouts, they stretch out so our [defensemen] can't really gap up. It makes it hard. There's a big gap between our forwards forechecking and our [defensemen] with their forwards at the red line. Some nights it's not your best game, and tonight was one of those nights."
Trevor van Riemsdyk gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 3:25 of the second with a wrist shot from between the hash marks that beat Hellebuyck high glove side.
"We didn't have our legs early, that was clear," Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. "They were jumping on us. I thought as the first period went on, we got our legs going again. Clearly the coverage on their first goal was a complete breakdown for us. Power play hurt us."

Evgeny Kuznetsov made it 2-0 at 8:21 with a backhand from the slot on the power play, extending his point streak to five games (one goal, five assists).
Johansson made it 3-0 when he was awarded a penalty shot at 9:55 after being slashed by Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey on a short-handed breakaway. Johansson scored on a backhand.
"I've done that move before and it worked last time, so I just thought I'd stick with it," Johansson said. "I felt that was a pretty big goal for us."

Lars Eller, playing his 900th NHL game, extended it to 4-0 at 15:24, scoring on a rebound from an Anthony Mantha shot from the slot.
Lowry cut it to 4-1 just 35 seconds into the third period, and Dubois made it 4-2 at 3:29 with a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Kyle Connor.
"We got contributions from a lot of places, and Charlie was so strong in net," Eller said. "Just one of those 60-minute efforts where you know it was only those first five minutes in the third where they pushed and were able to get two quick ones.
"After that, I just think we responded really well. "[We] didn't panic and kept them from getting to chances after that. So, it was a really overall good game tonight."
NOTES:Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov had two assists, three shots on goal and two blocked shots in 21:29 of ice time after missing 16 games because of a lower-body injury. … The Jets' streak of scoring a power-play goal ended at seven games.