Alex Ovechkin scored twice and the visiting Washington Capitals rode a three-goal second period to a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday that lifted them into the Eastern Conference's second wild-card position.
Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson both collected one goal and one assist, while Hendrix Lapierre added a goal for the Capitals (33-25-9, 75 points), who have won three straight games and moved one point ahead of the Detroit Red Wings. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 34 saves and John Carlson and Rasmus Sandin each collected an assist.
Kevin Rooney and MacKenzie Weegar replied for the Flames (33-30-5, 71 points), who saw their two-game winning streak come to an end. Goalie Dustin Wolf stopped 28 shots.
Despite Calgary holding the edge in play, Strome opened the scoring at 14:59 of the first period when he set up at the top of the right circle and ripped a glove-side wrist shot for his 23rd goal of the season, which matches his career high.
Ovechkin reached the 20-goal mark for the 19th time in his 19-year career at 5:58 of the second period. Ovechkin was set up at the doorstep and redirected Max Pacioretty's pass for the power-play marker, his 12th goal in the last 21 outings.
Ovechkin joined Gordie Howe and Brendan Shanahan to post 19 consecutive 20-goal seasons.
Another Ovechkin power-play goal made it a 3-0 affair at 9:16 of the middle frame. He unloaded a patented one-timer from the left face-off dot to pull him 51 goals behind Wayne Gretzky's record of 894 NHL tallies.
Rooney gave the Flames a much-needed boost with his second of the season, a redirect from the side of the net, 85 seconds later to make it a 3-1 game.
But Lapierre restored the three-goal lead at 14:22 of the middle frame with a chip shot of a bounding puck in the slot that banked off the crossbar and into the net for his eighth of the campaign.
Weegar again pulled the Flames within a pair by blasting a point shot off a face-off win for his 16th of the season with 12:47 remaining in regulation.
However, Wilson sealed the victory with an empty-net goal, his 17th of the season, to round out the scoring.
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