Ovechkin ties Jagr with 766 goals in Capitals win against Flames

CALGARY -- Alex Ovechkin scored twice to
tie Jaromir Jagr
for third in NHL history with 766 goals, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Calgary Flames 5-4 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday.

Ovechkin tied it 2-2 at 13:23 of the second period with a shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle, then tied Jagr with an empty-net goal at 18:12 of the third period to give Washington a 5-3 lead.
"Obviously, it's always nice to hear those kind of milestones, numbers," Ovechkin said. "It's pretty big, obviously, and how I always said, being with those names and in this company, it's a pretty cool moment."
Nick Jensen had three assists and Vitek Vanecek made 31 saves for the Capitals (31-18-9), who have won three in a row for the first time since Nov. 24-28.
"I think that was what was so important and good for building confidence within our guys is that we have a veteran team, so we've been there before, but that was one of the first games this year where we've been down a goal," Washington forward Nic Dowd said. "We stuck with it in a tough building against a good team in their building and did all the little things right and we got rewarded for it at the end."

Elias Lindholm scored twice, and Dan Vladar made 22 saves for the Flames (34-15-7), whose 13-game home point streak ended (12-0-1).
"We want to perform and we want to get wins," Calgary defenseman Oliver Kylington said. "Obviously when you're not getting wins it's disappointing, but at the same time we have to regroup here and get a win (against the Tampa Bay Lightning) on Thursday."
Lindholm scored at 9:40 of the first period on a 2-on-1 with Johnny Gaudreau to give Calgary a 1-0 lead, and Adam Ruzicka made it 2-0 at 8:54 of the second period after a turnover.
Conor Sheary cut it to 2-1 at 10:27 from the high slot for his fourth goal in four games.
Kylington scored at 3:45 of the third period to give the Flames a 3-2 lead. His shot from the point deflected off the stick of Connor McMichael for his first goal in 12 games.
"I thought we hung around," Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. "We needed a couple saves, needed to bury a couple chances, those Grade-A's we had, try and get a two-goal cushion at some point. But their depth showed up. It was stronger than ours."
Anthony Mantha
tied it 3-3 at 8:21, and Dowd scored at 11:50 with a shot through a screen to give the Capitals a 4-3 lead.
Lindholm scored on a deflection with 40 seconds left for the 5-4 final.
"I liked the way we played tonight," Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. "We made a couple mistakes early, but I thought we did a really good job of just battling, battling back in that game and battling back again and then a couple big goals, a few big goals in the third period to put it away. So, some good resiliency by our group tonight and keep things moving here in the month of March."

Ovechkin had a chance to pass Jagr, but his shot was deflected wide by Lindholm with two seconds remaining. He'll have another chance for No. 767 when the Capitals play the second of a back to back at the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, SN1, TVAS, NHL LIVE).
"Yeah. I was hoping so, but it hit his skates," Ovechkin said. "It's OK. I'll take it tomorrow."
NOTES: Washington is 20-3-4 when Ovechkin scores. … Ovechkin has scored in three consecutive games and has four goals and three assists in a four-game point streak. Sheary also has a four-game point streak (four goals, two assists). … Ovechkin has 157 multigoal games, one from tying Brett Hull for second in NHL history (Wayne Gretzky, 189) and 120 game-winning goals, one from tying Gordie Howe for second in NHL history (Jagr, 135). ... Ovechkin and center Nicklas Backstrom played together in an NHL game for the 1,000th time, becoming the first set of Capitals teammates to accomplish the feat. Los Angeles Kings forwards Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are the only other active set to play 1,000 games together. ... Center Mikael Backlund played his 800th NHL game, all with the Flames.