Ovechkin scores No. 889, Jets clinch playoff berth with OT win against Capitals

WINNIPEG -- Alex Ovechkin scored his 889th goal to move closer to passing Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history, but the Winnipeg Jets recovered for a 3-2 overtime win to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

“I'm glad he got the goal, in the sense of getting closer to his goal,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said of Ovechkin's chase for the NHL record. “I'm not glad he got the goal, I'm glad he's getting close to whatever that number is. End of the day, that's him. It doesn't take much. The puck is on his stick, off his stick. I thought we did a really good job for most of the game of kind of limiting him, not a lot of chances, even on the power play. But I thought we did a really good job of staying over top of him. He doesn't need much time and space. At the end of the day, we got the two points. It is what it is. I was kind of hoping we could finish that one off in a 2-1 game, but we did a pretty good job on him.”

Ovechkin tied the game 2-2 with 4:00 remaining in the third period, scoring with a wrist shot from the left circle to move within six goals of passing Gretzky (894).

“I think the beginning of the second we generate pretty good chances, and in the third you can see after when we’re down by one we’re kind of trying to make a push and we got rewarded,” Ovechkin said. “But it was a playoff game, like playoff mentality, physicality was there as well. So, yeah, it was a good one.”

Nikolaj Ehlers scored on a breakaway 1:28 into overtime to secure the win for Winnipeg, which had become the first team from the Western Conference to clinch a playoff berth once it earned one point for taking the game to overtime.

“This was a big challenge for us, and I believe they felt the same way in the other room,” Ehlers said. “And we played really well, I thought. When we got the pucks deep and worked down there, we got some zone time and kept them out of our zone. So, that's something that we want to keep doing against the rest of the teams that we've got coming up here because that's going to help us in the playoffs."

Josh Morrissey and Mason Appleton also scored for the Jets (49-19-4), who had lost two of three (1-2-0). Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves.

Washington remains the leader in the battle for the Presidents' Trophy with 103 points, one ahead of Winnipeg.

“That was a heavyweight battle right there. It really was,” Arniel said. “Even though one team’s from the East, one’s from the West, it was like we play each other eight times a year. There was a lot of trash talking going on, there were some big hits, there was a lot happening. Both teams recognized that they wanna be No. 1. It was a great game. Punch, counterpunch going on all night.”

Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Capitals (47-15-9), who had won nine of 10 (9-1-0). Logan Thompson made 22 saves.

“I was happy with the way we performed for the most part,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “I thought it was a good hockey game. But they had us back on our heels early, which is somewhat to be expected coming on the road in this building. But felt like we pushed back in the second. Unfortunate to give that one up late after the kill at the end of the second, but (we) fought in the third. It was a little bit of a chess match, but we continued to push and found the equalizer.”

Morrissey gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 6:50 of the first period with a one-timer from the point.

Mangiapane tied it 1-1 at 19:20. Skating in on a 3-on-2 rush, he beat Hellebuyck blocker side with a quick catch and release shot off a give-and-go with Jakob Chychrun.

“When you play against good teams that are structured and don't give you much, what it comes down to is, a team is going to crack at certain moments,” Carbery said. “If you want to win this time of year you can't crack… Our team has done a tremendous job all year. We don't crack often and we force other teams to because we just stay with it and stay with it. I felt like that was tonight what we saw from both teams.”

Appleton put the Jets back in front 2-1 at 19:48 of the second period. Nino Niederreiter sent a cross-ice pass on the rush to Appleton, who scored glove side on Thompson with a wrist shot from the face-off dot.

“Sometimes those can be real deflating but I didn't feel that (the tying goal) deflated our group at all,” Appleton said. “We had that 2-1 lead and sometimes you sit back and protect it a little too much and I didn't feel we did that at all. I thought we played a really good third, so when they got that one our mindset didn't really change. Then obviously for [Ehlers] to get that one in OT, it was huge to get the two points there.”

NOTES: Ovechkin has 102 points (57 goals, 45 assists) in 75 games against the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers, the most goals and points by any player against the franchise. His 57 goals are the most by an active player against one franchise. … Mangiapane extended his goal streak to three games (three goals). … Winnipeg became the second team with 30 wins when scoring first this season (30-3-3), joining the Florida Panthers (31). … Appleton scored his first goal in 13 games and ended a nine-game point skid.