Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal with teammates during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal with teammates during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored for the first time this season, Dylan Strome added a pair of goals and the Washington Capitals beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Friday night for their fourth straight victory.
Ovechkin’s third-period shot pinged off the left post and in, and the crowd roared its approval when the counter above one corner of the ice was flipped over to 898, his new career total. The NHL’s career leader in goals also had an assist as part of a dominant showing at home for Washington.
Logan Thompson allowed only ex-Capital Marcus Johansson’s tally in the second. That tied it at 1, but Aliaksei Protas answered 31 seconds later.
Minnesota entered the game with the league’s top power play, having scored on 10 of 21 opportunities. But the Capitals only took two penalties and were able to kill them off. Washington finished with a 45-14 edge in shots.
Ovechkin passed up a good shooting opportunity from the right side, instead finding Strome for an easy tap-in to open the scoring in the first. Washington failed to score on a double-minor penalty on Minnesota’s Jake Middleton in the second. Then Johansson beat Thompson with wrist shot with 3:13 to play in that period.
That snapped a streak in which the last nine Minnesota goals had come on the power play, and it was just the third 5-on-5 score allowed by Washington on the season.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Friday:
RED WINGS 2 LIGHTNING 1 (OT)Â
DETROIT (AP) — Dylan Larkin scored on a breakaway 3:36 into overtime to give Detroit a victory over Tampa Bay.
Axel Sandin-Pellikka scored his first NHL goal during the first period. It was also the first career point for the 20-year-old Swedish defenceman. Larkin assisted on Sandin-Pellikka’s goal and has at least one point in each of Detroit’s five games.
John Gibson made 32 saves for the Red Wings. Gibson, who was acquired in an off-season trade with Anaheim, was making his second appearance this season. He got pulled late in the second period of the Wings’ season opener after allowing five goals to Montreal.
Lightning defenceman J.J. Moser tied the game with 3:43 remaining. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 29 shots for the Lighting, who are 1-0-2 on their four-game road trip.
MAMMOTH 6 SHARKS 3
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Nick Schmaltz had three goals and an assist, and Utah beat San Jose.
Clayton Keller had a goal and three assists and Liam O’Brien and Michael Carcone also scored for Utah. Karel Vejmelka stopped 18 shots as the Mammoth won their second straight and third in four games.
Tyler Toffoli, Jeff Skinner and Macklin Celebrini scored for San Jose, which was an NHL-worst 20-50-12 last season and is winless in four games (0-2-2) this year. Yaroslav Askarov finished with 28 saves.
Schmaltz finished off his first career hat trick 54 seconds into third, getting a pass from Keller from behind the net and scoring from the left side to push Utah’s lead to 4-2.
Carcone made it a three-goal lead at 3:25 and Keller pushed the advantage to 6-2 as he scored off a pass from Schmaltz with 8 1/2 minutes to go.
CANUCKS 3 BLACKHAWKS 2 (SO)
CHICAGO (AP) — Brock Boeser scored in the fourth round of the shootout and Vancouver beat Chicago.
Jake DeBrusk and Max Sasson scored in regulation as the Canucks got their second straight win after trailing 2-0 after the first period. Kevin Lankinen, who began his career with the Blackhawks, finished with 31 saves against his former team.
Ryan Donato and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the Blackhawks, who had won two straight. Spencer Knight had 30 saves.
After the first seven skaters of the shootout failed to score, Boeser ended it as he skated in on Knight and snapped it past the goalie on the glove side.
Vancouver outshot Chicago 11-7 in a scoreless third period.
