Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach the 20-goal mark for the 19th time in his career and help the resurgent Washington Capitals earn an important 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday.

Ovechkin's 20th and 21st goals of the season, both of which came on power plays in the second period, sparked the Capitals' third straight win. Washington is now 10-4-1 since Feb. 17 and one point ahead of the slumping Detroit Red Wings in the race for the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot.

Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson each contributed a goal and an assist to the victory, with Strome recording the lone goal of a first period in which Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 12 of his 34 saves.

Ovechkin's goals came 3:18 apart in the second period and pushed the Capitals' lead to 3-0. The future Hall of Famer became the sixth player in NHL history with 19 seasons of 20 or more goals.

Kevin Rooney put Calgary on the board with 9:19 remaining in the second before Hendrix Lapierre restored Washington's three-goal advantage with 5:38 left in the period.

The Flames fought back by recording 13 third-period shots and pulled to within 4-2 when MacKenzie Weegar rocketed the puck past Lindgren 7:13 into the frame.

Lindgren stood tall the rest of the way, however, before Wilson put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal with 2:29 left.

Dustin Wolf stopped 28 of 32 shots for Calgary, which had a two-game winning streak halted. 

Skinner's hat trick helps Sabres rout Kraken

Jeff Skinner recorded a hat trick and helped the Buffalo Sabres to a fast start which carried them to a 6-2 drubbing of the Seattle Kraken.

Skinner, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch all had goals in the first 5:41 of the game to spark Buffalo's fourth win in its last five outings. The surge has moved the Sabres within four points of a play-off spot in the Eastern Conference.

Thompson and Tuch added assists during Buffalo's early barrage, which came after Jordan Eberle gave Seattle a quick 1–0 lead just 24 seconds into the contest.

Thompson tied the game a mere 25 seconds later, however, and Skinner and Tuch soon followed with goals as the Sabres scored on three of their first four shots to prompt the Kraken to pull goaltender Joey Daccord less than six minutes in.

Seattle got one goal back before the conclusion of the period when Matty Berniers converted a power play, but failed to solve Buffalo's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen the rest of the way.

Luukkonen stopped 32 shots, including all 18 he faced in the third period.

After Owen Power's goal midway through the second period put Buffalo up 4-2, Skinner fired a shot past Seattle replacement netminder Philipp Grubauer just 42 seconds later.

Skinner completed his first hat trick of the season by beating Grubauer on a rush with 1:59 left to play.

Grubauer finished with 23 saves in Seattle's fifth consecutive loss (0-4-1).

Roman Josi scored twice in the third period and Juuse Saros stopped 23 shots as the Nashville Predators extended their point streak to 14 games with a 4-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist and Tommy Novak also scored for the Predators, who have gone 12-0-2 since their last regulation loss to Dallas on Feb. 15 to tighten their grip on the top wild card in the Western Conference.

The 14-game streak is tied for the second-longest in franchise history, matching a 14-game run during the 2015-16 season. Nashville earned points in 15 straight in the 2017-18 season, a stretch during which it went 14-0-1.

Andre Burakovsky had the lone goal for Seattle, which dropped its fourth straight (0-3-1) to fall further back in the playoff race.

Streaking Avs top Oilers in OT

Artturi Lehkonen scored with one second left in overtime and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 for their sixth straight victory.

Defenseman Sean Walker scored the other two goals to help the Avalanche improve to 10-2-1 in their last 13 games. They kept pace with Dallas, each with 91 points, to remain tied for the Central Division lead.

Nathan MacKinnon assisted on the winning goal to extend his point streak to 15 games. MacKinnon, who has 10 goals and 21 assists during his run, leads the NHL with 116 points.

Sam Carrick and Warren Foegele scored for the Oilers, who have points in nine of their last 10 contests (7-1-2).

Connor McDavid was held without a point to end his home point streak at 26 games.

Panarin stars in Rangers’ win

Artemi Panarin scored twice and added three assists to lead the New York Rangers to a 7-4 win over the sliding Pittsburgh Penguins.

Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller each had a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who have won four of five to remain four points ahead of Carolina in the race for the Metropolitan Division title.

Panarin has seven goals and 14 assists in his last 14 games. He has 93 points on the season to become the first player in the franchise’s 97-year history with at least 90 points in three consecutive seasons.

Lars Eller and Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist apiece as the Penguins lost for the eighth time in 10 games and dropped seven points behind the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Evan Bouchard and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored third-period goals to back Stuart Skinner's 38 saves as the Edmonton Oilers got back on track with Monday's 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Bouchard and Leon Draisaitl each finished with a goal and an assist as the Oilers halted a three-game losing streak and dealt the surging Kings just their second loss in seven games. 

Edmonton had to rally to do so, as it trailed 2-1 before Draisaitl scored on a power play with 4:04 remaining in the second period.

Skinner then stopped all 14 shots he faced in the third to protect a 3-2 lead he inherited when Bouchard blasted a shot from near the blue line past Los Angeles goaltender David Rittch just 1:25 into the period.

Nugent-Hopkins later put the contest out of reach by scoring off a give-and-go with Connor Brown with 3:29 remaining.

After Los Angeles' Trevor Moore and Edmonton's Zach Hyman traded goals in the first period, Alex Laferriere put the Kings back ahead 7:34 into the second.

Rittich recorded 27 saves for Los Angeles, which had a three-game road winning streak stopped.

Kraken win in shootout as Bruins' skid reaches three games

Kailer Yamamoto scored the lone goal in the shootout as the Seattle Kraken dealt the formidable Boston Bruins a third straight loss by coming through with a 4-3 victory.

Yamamoto opened the shootout by beating Boston goaltender Linus Ullmark glove-side, and Philipp Grubauer made the lead stand by stopping all three Bruins skaters he faced in the deciding phase after making 29 saves in regulation and overtime.

Boston, which got two goals and an assist from David Pastrnak, still managed to extend its point streak to six games when Charlie Coyle scored on a power play with 2:52 left in regulation to forge a 3-3 tie.

The Bruins had lost each of their two most recent games in overtime and are 2-0-4 during the run. 

Pastrnak had the only goal of a first period in which the Bruins recorded an 11-7 shot advantage, then put Boston back ahead late in the second with his 38th of the season. Jordan Eberle had tied the game earlier in the period when Ullmark's attempted clearing pass deflected off the Seattle forward, who promptly tapped the puck into an open net.

The Kraken then took their first lead of the night on third-period goals from Vince Dunn and Oliver Bjorkstrand, the latter coming with 5:30 left in regulation.

Ullmark finished with 24 saves for Boston, which moved one point ahead of the New York Rangers for first place in the Eastern Conference with the result.

Islanders win in overtime to continue Stars' slump

Bo Horvat scored with 2:06 remaining in overtime as the New York Islanders extended the Dallas Stars' recent slump with a 3-2 victory.

Horvat one-timed a feed from Mathew Barzal past Dallas goaltender Scott Wedgewood to hand the Stars a fifth loss in six games (1-2-3), though Dallas did move two points clear of the second-place WInnipeg Jets in the Central Division by forcing overtime. 

The outcome was a familiar one, as Horvat also had the game-winner in overtime when these teams last met in New York on Jan. 21.

Ryan Pulock had a goal and an assist to help the Islanders snap a two-game losing streak, while Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 of 32 shots.

After Pulock registered the lone goal of the first period, the scoring picked up in the second as Matt Duchene converted a Dallas power play to tie the game 7:11 into the period.

Kyle MacLean put New York back ahead later in the second, but the Stars again drew even when Logan Stankoven beat Sorokin with a wrist shot with 1:43 left in the period for his first NHL goal.

Stankoven, playing in his second career NHL game, added an assist on Duchene's goal. 

Wedgewood finished with 25 saves.

Marc-Andre Fleury took sole possession of second place on the NHL's all-time wins list for a goaltender by posting a 21-save shutout and leading the Minnesota Wild to a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday.

Fleury broke a tie with Hall of Famer Patrick Roy with his 552nd career victory, and did so in style with his 74th career shutout and the 39-year-old's first this season.

Joel Eriksson Ek scored both short-handed and on a power play to help Fleury achieve the feat and end a four-game losing streak for Minnesota. Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno contributed a goal and an assist each. 

The Wild took control early by forcing an Islanders' penalty just over a minute in, and Zuccarello scored on the resulting power play for a quick 1-0 lead.

Connor Dewar scored off a New York turnover 2:18 into the second to extend Minnesota's advantage, and Eriksson Ek got his first of the night with the Wild on a 5-on-4 later in the period to increase the margin to 3-0.

Eriksson's short-handed goal came with 3:51 remaining and Foligno completed the rout by tipping in a pass from Frederick Gaudreau in the final minute.

Fleury needed to make just three saves during the Wild's dominant second period before recording eight more in the third to finish off his historic shutout.

The Islanders were dealt a fourth loss in five games and pulled star goaltender Ilya Sorokin following the second intermission after he allowed three goals on 32 shots.

Crosby, Jarry star as Penguins end Kraken's nine-game winning streak

Sidney Crosby scored two goals to support a 22-save shutout from Tristan Jarry as the Pittsburgh Penguins stopped the Seattle Kraken’s franchise-record nine-game winning streak with a 3-0 victory.

Drew O’Connor added a goal and Rickard Rakell finished with two assists to help Pittsburgh bounce back from overtime defeats in its previous two games and hand the Kraken their first loss since Dec. 18.

Seattle also had a 13-game point streak (11-0-2) halted despite a solid effort from goaltender Joey Daccord, who turned aside 30 of 32 shots.

Daccord made 12 saves in the first period to keep the game scoreless, but the Penguins broke through just 49 seconds into the second when O’Connor converted a backhand feed from Bryan Rust.

Crosby made it a 2-0 lead just 2:43 later before capping his two-goal day with an empty-net strike with 2:21 left to play.

Jarry’s shutout was his fifth of the season, tied with the Arizona Coyotes’ Connor Ingram for tops in the NHL.

Kings snap eight-game skid behind big third period

Trevor Moore had two goals and the Los Angeles Kings scored four times in the third period to come through with a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and end an eight-game losing streak.

Moore, Phillip Danault, Alex Laferriere and Pierre Luc-Dubois all had goals in the final 19 minutes to send the Kings to their first victory of 2024. Los Angeles had gone 0-4-4 since its most recent victory on Dec. 27.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, had gone 7-0-1 over their previous eight games.

Danault added two assists and David Rittich recorded 30 saves for the Kings, who struck three times in the first 5:20 of the third to break a 1-1 deadlock after two periods.

Danault put Los Angeles ahead by knocking in the carom of teammate Vladislav Garikov’s off-target shot 61 seconds into the third. Laferriere sent a wrist shot past Carolina goaltender Antti Raanta just 1:20 later to extend the lead, and Dubois’ one-timer with 14:40 remaining increased the margin to 4-1.

The Hurricanes got closer on Jack Drury’s goal with 11:02 left to play, but failed to close the gap further before Moore put the game away with a short-handed empty-net tally with 1:16 remaining.

Moore scored the game’s lone goal of the first period before Jordan Martinook answered for Carolina 5:38 into the second to extend his goal streak to three games.

Raanta stopped just 20 of 24 shots before being pulled after allowing Dubois’ goal.

Darnell Nurse scored 80 seconds into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers matched a franchise record with their ninth straight victory, 3-2 over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman had the other goals for the Oilers, who also won nine in a row late last season and in 2001. They can break the team mark on Saturday night in Montreal.

McDavid extended his point streak to nine games and notched the 906th of his career, pulling him into a fourth-place tie with Glenn Anderson on the team’s all-time list.

Hyman is also red hot with eight goals and four assists in his last eight games.

Andrew Copp and Olli Maata scored for the Red Wings, who have points in four straight (3-0-1).

Panthers score late in overtime to continue streak

Sam Reinhart scored with less than a second left in overtime as the Florida Panthers rallied to extend their winning streak to nine games, 3-2 over the slumping Los Angeles Kings.

Matthew Tkachuk scored the equaliser with 2:18 remaining in regulation and Sam Bennett also tallied for the Panthers, who have the third-longest winning streak in franchise history.

Florida won 12 straight games in the 2015-16 season, then had their other two longest streaks in 2021-22 – eight consecutive wins to open that season, then 13 in a row toward the end of that season.

Reinhart has goals in five straight games, tallying 13 in his last 11 contests.

Los Angeles is winless in seven in a row (0-3-4).

Kraken win 8th straight

Joey Daccord stopped 25 shots and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Washington Capitals 4-1 for their franchise record-tying eighth consecutive win.

Tye Kartye, Adam Larsson, Justin Schultz and Alex Wennberg scored for the Kraken, who are 10-0-2 in their last 12 games. They haven’t had a regulation loss since Dec. 10.

Daccord improved to 7-0-0 in his last eight games, with an eye-popping .966 save percentage during that span.

Kartye and Larsson became the 15th and 16th players to score for Seattle during this streak.

Max Pacioretty scored his first goal of the season for Washington, which has lost seven of nine (2-5-2).

Joey Daccord stopped 35 shots for his second career shutout as the surging Seattle Kraken registered a 3-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday to win the NHL’s Winter Classic.

Daccord recorded the first shutout in Winter Classic history and was supported by goals from Eeli Tolvanen, Will Borgen and Yanni Gourde as the Kraken delighted a crowd of 47,313 at T-Mobile Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners.

Tolvanen added an assist to help Seattle to its fifth straight win. The Kraken also set a franchise record by earning a point in their ninth consecutive game (7-0-2).

Seattle jumped out to a 1–0 lead less than five minutes in when Tolvanen redirected teammate Vince Dunn’s shot past Vegas goaltender Logan Thompson.

Borgen extended the margin 2:19 into the second period with his first goal of the season, a drive off a loose puck that beat Thompson to the stick side.

Despite the Golden Knights owning a 15-6 shot advantage in the third period, the Kraken got the lone goal when Gourde forced a Vegas turnover and scored with 17:50 left to play.

Thompson finished with 24 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, who had their recent slump extended with a fifth loss in six games.

This was the first appearance for both teams in the Winter Classic, the NHL’s annual New Year’s Day outdoor event which was being held for the 15th time.

A pair of eliminated playoff teams announced front-office moves Wednesday, as the Seattle Kraken signed general manager Ron Francis to an extension and the Toronto Maple Leafs hired Brad Treliving as their next GM.

Francis received a three-year extension through the 2026-2027 season, while Treliving joined Toronto after spending the previous nine seasons as GM of the Calgary Flames.

Francis was named the first GM in Kraken history in July 2019 and the team posted a 27-49-6 record in its inaugural NHL season in 2021-22. Seattle then went 46-28-8 this season to reach the playoffs.

The Kraken upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the postseason before losing in seven games to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference semifinals.

"Ron has done remarkable work over the last four years and deserves this recognition," Kraken co-owner Samantha Holloway said.

"He has built a tremendous team, putting Seattle hockey on the map. He is building for long term success and is dedicated to our city, our fans, and our community."

Treliving, meanwhile, left the Flames last month after they missed the playoffs with a 38-27-17 record.

That came after Calgary had 111 points last season – the second-most in franchise history – before being eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in the West semis.

The Flames made the playoffs five times in Treliving’s nine seasons as GM.

Treliving takes over for Kyle Dubas, who was fired less than two weeks ago after Toronto won a playoff series for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign.

The Maple Leafs were ousted by the eventual Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers in five games in the semis, extending the Original Six franchise’s Stanley Cup drought to 56 years.

"I'm very pleased to welcome Brad into the Maple Leafs organization," Maple Leafs president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan said.

"Brad brings a wealth of knowledge from his years of experience as a general manager and hockey executive in Calgary, Arizona and beyond.

“He has earned tremendous respect amongst his peers throughout his years in the NHL and has built excellent relationships at all levels within the game.

“We are confident that Brad's leadership and strategic vision will elevate the Maple Leafs in our continued pursuit of a championship."