Ovechkin helps Capitals end Oilers' five-game road winning streak

WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin tied Marcel Dionne for eighth place in NHL history with his 234th power-play goal to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Capital One Arena on Monday.

The Capitals (6-4-3) won for the second time in their past five games (2-2-1) and ended the Oilers' five-game road winning streak.
Forward Connor McDavid extended his points streak to eight games (six goals, five assists) with a first period power-play goal for Edmonton (8-5-1), which had won two straight and five of its previous six games.
"We needed that win and we knew they have a pretty good team," Ovechkin said. "Obviously, I think tonight the fourth] line set the tone."
***[WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Capitals highlights]*
The fourth line of Jakub Vrana, Travis Boyd and Devante Smith-Pelly scored goals on its first two shifts to stake Washington to a 2-0 lead. Smith-Pelly had a goal and an assist, Vrana scored a goal, and Boyd had two assists. Defenseman John Carlson also had two assists.
Capitals backup goalie Pheonix Copley made 31 saves to earn his second win of the season. Cam Talbot made 19 saves for Edmonton.
"I think it was a team effort," said Copley, who made his first home start. "Everybody kind of buckled down. We talked about game management. I think we did a good job of that tonight."
The Capitals focused on their defense after losing their previous two games (0-1-1). Although McDavid scored a power-play goal, the Capitals held him in check for most of the game, limiting him to two shots on goal, one at even strength, and none over the final two periods.

The line of Chandler Stephenson, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, in combination with the defense pair of Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen, was matched against McDavid's line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Drake Caggiula for much of the night.
"You try to limit their speed and their space and they're such good players that sometimes you're not able to always do that, and that's when you rely on each other," Oshie. "You rely on your systems to help you out with that."
Getting an early two-goal lead helped.
First, Smith-Pelly's pass out of the left corner set up Vrana for a shot from inner rim of the left circle that beat Talbot to the far side at 2:44. Then, Boyd dropped the puck to Smith-Pelly in a slot for a shot in over Talbot's glove to make it 2-0 at 5:44.
"Tonight, their forecheck kind of jumped all over us," Talbot said. "They got two quick goals on a couple turnovers. That's just kind of the way that team can go."
McDavid cut the Capitals' lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal from the right circle at 10:24 of the first. It was McDavid's 10th goal of the season.

Oshie increased Washington's lead to 3-1 at 8:11 of the second period by taking a spin-around backhand feed from Backstrom in the right circle and beating Talbot to the short side. Leon Draisaitl redirected in Adam Larson's slap-pass from the right point at 10:41 to pull Edmonton within 3-2.
But Ovechkin made it 4-2 with his power-play goal from the left circle at 13:09 of the second, his 11th goal of the season.
Edmonton outshot Washington 11-2 in the third period but could not cut into its deficit.
"I think we gave it away in the first 10 minutes," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "When you're playing that quality of team, you don't want to be chasing the game, especially that early."
The next step for the Capitals will be to repeat this effort when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday. The defending Stanley Cup champions have yet to win consecutive games this season.
"You're always looking for consistency and at times here we've found it for stretches, for good stretches, and right now we're not really finding that consistency." Oshie said. "So, we'll look to do that in our game and it starts with the start Wednesday night."

They said it

"They have some game-breakers. They have some very skilled forwards. They've got a couple D-men that have great vision that can get pucks through. They have confidence on their power play. And they have the Stanley Cup. That means they're pretty [darn] good." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan
"It's not always going to be that easy and no one definitely has thought it's going to be easy. Sometimes [not] until you really learn a lesson the hard way and lose two points and see them vanish in front of your face, do you really learn. That's part of the process." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden

Need to know

McDavid has a least one point in 13 of Edmonton's 14 games. … Boyd, who made his season debut after missing 12 games with a left foot injury, had his first multi-point game in the NHL. … Washington blocked 23 shots.

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What's next

Oilers: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SNW, NHL.TV)
Capitals: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS)