CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored twice and moved into a tie for third place on the NHL's career goals list, and Nic Dowd scored the go-ahead goal as the Washington Capitals rallied in the third period and beat the Calgary Flames 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Ovechkin’s second goal, into an empty net at 18:12 of the third that gave Washington a 5-3 lead, was his 766th career goal, tying him with Jaromir Jagr for third place in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky leads the list with 894 goals, and Gordie Howe is second with 801.
Connor Sheary and Anthony Mantha also scored for Washington (31-18-9), which won its third straight. Vitek Vanecek made 31 saves and improved to 13-7-5.
Adam Ruzicka, Oliver Kylington and Elias Lindholm scored for Calgary (34-15-7), which had its 13-game unbeaten streak snapped on home ice. The Pacific Division-leading Flames fall to 14-2-1 in their last 17 games overall. Dan Vladar, starting for the second time in three games with Jacob Markstrom getting a night off, had 22 saves and fell to 8-4-1.
After Lindholm’s second goal with 40 seconds left got Calgary within one, Ovechkin had a chance for a hat trick in the waning seconds, but his shot at the empty net was deflected by Lindholm.
Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, Calgary took its second lead of the game at 3:45 when Kylington’s slap shot deflected off Connor McMichael’s stick and got past Vanecek.
But the Capitals tied it at 8:21 on Mantha’s goal and took the lead just over three minutes later.
Getting the puck at the sideboards, Dowd made a nice cut to sidestep Lindholm, then from the face-off dot, ripped a shot into the top corner for his eighth goal and first in 10 games.
The Capitals also trailed 2-0 in the second, but stormed back to tie it.
McMichael was stopped on a sharp pad save by Vladar, but Milan Lucic bobbled the rebound into the slot where Sheary buried his fourth goal in as many games. Sheary has a four-game point streak (four goals, two assists).
The Capitals pulled even at 13:23 on another turnover. Sean Monahan, in front of his own net, lost the puck to Evgeny Kuznetsov and the puck went right to Ovechkin, who beat Vladar.
Calgary took the lead halfway through the first period on a 2-on-1 when Lindholm took a pass from Johnny Gaudreau and netted his 28th.
Ruzicka made it 2-0 at 8:54 of the second.
NOTES: The Capitals are 20-3-4 when Ovechkin scores. ... It was the 1,000th game Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom played together. They are the first set of Capitals teammates to reach that milestone. Los Angeles’ Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar are the only other active duo to accomplish the feat. ... Calgary C Mikael Backlund played in career game No. 800, all with the Flames. That ranks him fifth in franchise history.
UP NEXT
Washington: At Vancouver Canucks in finale of a three-game trip.
Calgary: Host Tampa Bay Lightning in third game of a four-game homestand.
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