Ovechkin Catches Jagr in Caps Win Over Flames

Alex Ovechkin has made a career of making NHL history, and he did it again on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. Ovechkin scored a pair of goals - including the game-winner - to tie ex-Caps winger Jaromir Jagr for third place on the NHL's all-time goals list; both players now sit even with 766 career markers. Ovechkin's goals helped the Caps rally from a 2-0 second-period deficit to claim a 5-4 victory over the Flames in Calgary.

Now, only Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801) have more NHL goals than Ovechkin.
"Obviously it's always kind of nice to hear those kind of milestones numbers," says the Caps' captain. "It's pretty big, obviously. Being in the company of those names, it's a pretty cool moment."
With the victory, the Caps have their first three-game winning streak since Nov. 24-28.
"I liked the way we played tonight," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We made a couple of mistakes early, but I thought we did a really good job of just battling back in that game and battling back again. And then a few big goals in the third period that put it away. Some good resiliency by our group tonight to keep things moving here in the month of March."
The first half of the first period of Tuesday's game was utterly bereft of flow; there were 11 face-offs before the first television timeout, a span of six and a half minutes. Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek made the first of several strong stops on Calgary's first shot of the night, a breakaway bid from Dillon Dube.
Coming out of that first television timeout, the Flames appeared to take a 1-0 lead when Andrew Mangiapane one-timed a loose puck into the Washington net. But the Caps issued a successful coach's challenge to keep the game scoreless. The Flames were offside on the play.
Calgary did draw first blood, taking a 1-0 lead when Elias Lindholm scored on a 2-on-1 rush at 9:40 of the first.
Just ahead of the midpoint of the second period, Calgary doubled its lead when Adam Ruzicka scored from in tight after a Caps turnover.
Less than two minutes later, the Caps responded. Connor McMichael hit Lars Eller perfectly on the rush, and Flames goalie Dan Vladar made an excellent stop. But the puck came to Conor Sheary in the high slot, and he scored his fourth goal in as many games, making it a 2-1 contest at 10:27 of the second.
Soon after the Sheary strike, Vanecek made a dazzling stop on Lindholm to keep the Caps within a goal, and that save would soon loom large. Ovechkin put some forechecking heat on the Flames, and Sean Monahan coughed the puck up right in front of the Calgary cage. It hit Evgeny Kuznetsov and went right to Ovechkin, who quickly buried it, tying the game at 2-2 with 6:37 remaining in the second.
"Off the forecheck, it hit Kuzy's skate," recounts Ovechkin. "I knew I was by myself and I just tried to hit the net. Obviously, it was a big goal for us as well."
The two teams headed to the third all even, and Calgary came out hard in the third. The Flames out some pressure on the Caps in Washington ice, and were rewarded when Oliver Kylington's shot from center point found its way through traffic and behind Vanecek to restore the Calgary lead at 3-2 at 3:45 of the third.
Just ahead of the midpoint of the third, the Caps pulled even once again. From his own blueline, Nick Jensen fired a laser of a pass to Backstrom at the Calgary line, where Backstrom bumped it to Anthony Mantha. From the right dot, the big winger expertly used Kylington as a screen, threading the puck through the defenseman legs and past Vladar on the short side, making it a 3-3 contest at 8:21 of the third.
On the very next shift, Vanecek made his best stop of the night. He first denied Chris Tanev, then assertively fought off Tyler Toffoli's rebound try from the top of the paint to prevent Calgary from regaining the lead.
Less than three minutes later, the Caps had their first lead of the night. Jensen put the puck in deep, and it rolled around to the left side where Axel Jonsson-Fjallby got a stick on it, enabling it to get to Nic Dowd. Dowd shook a defender and - with Garnet Hathaway providing a screen in front - ripped a wrist shot past Vladar from the left dot, giving Washington a 4-3 lead at 11:50.
"We came up on a set breakout," says Dowd. "Jens picked a side and rimmed it, and I got in on that side. Axel did a good job of getting in on the forecheck, and we just did a good job of playing within our system. The puck took a good bounce out to me and I tried to get to the middle and open up a lane. Hath did a really good job of screening the goalie, and it found the back of the net."
Dowd's go-ahead goal set the stage for Ovechkin, who fired home goal No. 766 from the red line and into an empty net to make it 5-3 for the Caps with 1:48 remaining.
"Pretty good job by [Tom Wilson] to find me out there," says Ovechkin. "I'll take it."
But Calgary wasn't finished yet. With 40 seconds left, Lindholm netted his second of the night, tipping home a Toffoli shot to make it 5-4. Ovechkin narrowly missed a crack at another empty net, which would have given him a hat trick and sole possession of third place ahead of Jagr.
"I thought we hung around," says Flames coach Darryl Sutter. "We needed some saves, and needed to bury a couple of chances; there were some Grade A's we had. Trying to get a two-goal cushion at some point, and I think their depth showed up a little stronger than ours."