Ovechkin, Backstrom lift Capitals over Sabres
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Associated Press - Published: March 6, 2008
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Alexander Ovechkin scored twice, including his NHL-leading 54th goal, in the Washington Capitals' 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night in a key Eastern Conference playoff-race matchup.
Niklas Backstrom, who entered the game as the NHL's rookie scoring leader, had a goal and an assist while Olie Kolzig made 25 saves for his 299th career victory. Washington jumped into 10th place in the East standings, a point behind Buffalo and two back of Philadelphia, which holds the final playoff berth.
Ovechkin, coming off a three-goal, two-assist outing in a 10-2 win over Boston on Monday, surpassed his career-high of 52 goals, and registered his 10th multigoal game this season.
The Capitals, improving to 16-8-3 since sitting 14th in the East at the midpoint of their season, also stayed within three points of Southwest Division-leading Carolina after the Hurricanes beat Atlanta 6-3 earlier in the night.
Ales Kotalik scored the lone goal for the suddenly slumping Sabres, who dropped to 2-4-1 in their past seven, and have two wins in their past eight home games (2-5-1). Buffalo, coming off a 5-2 win at Philadelphia on Tuesday, squandered a chance to take over eighth place.
Credit Ovechkin, who had a hand — but no assist — in setting up Backstrom's goal, scored 13:27 into the second period, 50 seconds after Kotalik tied it at 1.
Ovechkin started the play by checking Steve Bernier off the puck at the Sabres blue line, creating a break the other way. Viktor Kozlov then hit a wide-open Backstrom, who slipped a shot through Ryan Miller's legs, as the crowd booed, believing Ovechkin should have been penalized for hooking Bernier.
Ovechkin, who opened the scoring on a breakaway in the first period, then sealed the victory, putting the Capitals up 3-1 with 6:41 left, when his snap shot from the left circle hit Miller's pad, but had enough power to trickle in.
The 54 goals are two more than Ovechkin scored as a rookie two years ago moved him into second on the Capitals' single-season list, one more than Bob Carpenter. Dennis Maruk holds the record with 60 scored in 1981-82.
Ovechkin has six goals and four assists in his past four games, and inched closer to becoming the first to reach 60 goals since Mario Lemieux scored 69 and Jaromir Jagr 62 in 1995-96.
Hurricanes 6, Thrashers 3
ATLANTA — Eric Staal scored two goals and added an assist to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Atlanta Thrashers for their second straight win.
Scott Walker, Ryan Bayda, Joe Corvo and Erik Cole also scored for the Hurricanes, who have won eight of 11 since losing at New Jersey on Feb. 9.
Ilya Kovalchuk's 43rd goal, second-most in the NHL, made it 5-3 with 7:43 remaining, but the Thrashers still failed to prevent their winless streak from reaching eight games.
Red Wings 4, Blues 1
DETROIT — Pavel Datsyuk scored twice to lift NHL-leading Detroit to its second straight win after a 1-8-2 stretch.
Johan Franzen and Brian Rafalski also scored for the Red Wings, and Dominik Hasek made 18 saves.
Erik Johnson got the goal for St. Louis, which has lost seven of its last eight. Manny Legace stopped 28 shots.
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