WASHINGTON – Alex Ovechkin scored in a third straight game and the Washington Capitals easily defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-2.
The Capitals captain, who now has six goals this season and 859 in his career, also had two assists. His linemate Dylan Strome also had a goal and two assists.
Connor McMichael twice, Aliaksei Protas, Nic Dowd and Andrew Mangiapane also found the back of the net for the Capitals, who won a third straight game.
Damon Severson and Kevin Labanc responded for the Blue Jackets, who lost a second game in a row.
Logan Thompson (5-0-0) made 34 saves to remain perfect this season. His opposite number Daniil Tarasov stopped 15 shots.
Larkin does all the work
Dylan Larkin scored twice on the power play in the middle period and the Detroit Red Wings stopped a three-game losing streak by beating the Buffalo Sabers, 2-1.
Five of Larkin’s seven goals have come on power plays this season.
The Red Wings prevailed even though they had fewer shots than the opponent in an eighth straight game.
Cam Talbot made 31 saves, only giving way to Alex Tuch.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 21 shots for the Sabres, who have dropped their last three games.
Korpisalo’s first shutout
Joonas Korpisalo blocked 20 shots as the Boston Bruins defeated the Flyers 3-0 in Philadelphia.
Korpisalo recorded his first shutout in 2024-25, the fifth of his career.
Matthew Poitras, Justin Brazeau and Brad Marchand were the scorers.
Scored into an empty net, Marchand’s goal gave him a fifth point in his last four matches.
Aleksei Kolosov made 20 saves in relief of Samuel Ersson; the latter left in the first period, due to an unspecified injury.
The Bruins had lost two games in a row, while the Flyers had won their last two meetings.
Parayko takes matters into his own hands
Colton Parayko scored two goals and the St. Louis Blues had the upper hand against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2.
Jordan Kyrou also beat Joseph Woll, while Pavel Buchnevich completed into an empty net.
Jordan Binnington blocked 36 shots for the Blues, who stopped a three-game losing streak.
Mitch Marner and Steven Lorentz responded for the Leafs, who were looking for a third straight win.
Woll grew up in the St. Louis suburbs. It was his first career game at Enterprise Center.
The Blues deserved a fourth victory against clubs from the East. Among Western teams, only the Wild have done better with six wins so far this season.
Stamkos guide les Predators
Steven Stamkos scored a goal and added an assist as the Nashville Predators defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-2.
Colton Sissons and Roman Josi each found the back of the net for the first time this season and their goals gave the Predators a 3-1 lead, which ended a two-game losing streak.
Nathan MacKinnon, with his sixth goal and 20th point of the campaign, reduced the gap to 3-2 with less than three minutes remaining in the third period, but Filip Forberg and Gustav Nyquist completed the scoring into an empty net.
With a goal and an assist, Cale Makar joined Kirill Kaprizov and Sam Reinhart atop the National Hockey League with 21 points.
Despite impressive offensive production from Makar and MacKinnon, the Avalanche lost a third straight game and is 5-7-0 this season.
Les Blackhawks remontent les Kings
Tyler Bertuzzi scored 31 seconds into the third period to tie the game and the Chicago Blackhawks won 4-3 in a shootout against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Kings led 2-0 after 40 minutes of play thanks to two goals from Alex Laferriere, but everything changed in the third period.
Nick Foligno and Craig Smith first created the tie 2-2, but Quebecer Phillip Danault scored his first goal of the campaign to give the Californian team the lead midway through the period.
The Blackhawks then pulled their goaltender late in the game and the strategy worked. Bertuzzi redirected a nice pass from Ryan Donato into the net.
Overtime was no match and Connor Bedard, Teuvo Teravainen and Donato all beat Darcy Kuemper in a shootout. The latter made 18 saves.
Petr Mrazek stopped 37 shots to help the Blackhawks (4-7-1) win just their fourth game this season.
