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NHL: Ovechkin’s milestone goal leads Capitals past Toronto 3-2

TORONTO (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored the 650th goal of his career and Braden Holtby made 40 saves as the Washington Capitals defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Thursday night.

Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist, and Brett Connolly also scored for Washington, which won consecutive games for the first time in two weeks. Lars Eller added two assists.

Andreas Johnsson and John Tavares scored for Toronto. Frederik Andersen made 25 stops.

The Leafs, who were playing at home for the first time since Feb. 6 following a season-long six-game trip that ended with a 3-2-1 record, entered 7-2-2 over their last 11, but had also dropped two straight.

The Capitals, meanwhile, were 6-3-1 over their previous 10 after a 0-5-2 stretch that culminated with a 6-3 loss at Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 23.

Lightning 2,

Sabres 1

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov became the fastest player to 100 points in a season since Mario Lemieux, and he and Steven Stamkos scored in the shootout to lift Tampa Bay.

Kucherov became the league’s first 100-point player this season with his 30th goal. He got there in 62 games, one more than it took Lemieux in 1996-97.

Andrei Vasilevskiy had 29 saves and stopped both shootout attempts he faced. The Lightning have won eight straight and earned points in 12 in a row (10-0-2).

Rasmus Dahlin scored for Buffalo, and Carter Hutton stopped 39 shots.

Kucherov is the first player in Lightning franchise history to record multiple 100-point seasons and is the seventh player in the past 20 years with back-to-back such campaigns.

Sharks 4,

Penguins 0

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Tomas Hertl scored a pair of first-period power-play goals, Martin Jones stopped 26 shots and San Jose took advantage of sloppy play by Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brent Burns picked up his 12th of the season, and Evander Kane added a short-handed goal for the Sharks, who beat Casey DeSmith three times in the opening 14 minutes and kept the Penguins in check the rest of the way to sweep the season series from the team that edged them in six games in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.

The Sharks have won eight of 10 overall and pulled within one point of Calgary for the top spot in the Pacific Division.

DeSmith finished with 29 saves, but Pittsburgh stumbled out of the gate and never recovered to lose for just the second time in six games.

Hurricanes 4,

Panthers 3

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Justin Williams had two goals and an assist and Carolina rallied for two goals down to beat Florida.

Nino Niederreiter had a goal and an assist, and Justin Faulk also scored a goal Florida, which has won seven of its last nine games. Peter Mrazek made 27 saves.

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