The Washington Capitals look to continue to gain ground in their pursuit of a playoff berth on Thursday when they visit the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J.
The Capitals (38-28-9, 85 points) have won three in a row and are 6-1-2 in their last nine games to move within three points of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach the 30-goal plateau for the 20th time in his career in Washington’s 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
Tom Wilson also tallied twice while playing in his 900th career NHL game. Defenseman Jakob Chychrun scored a goal and set up two others while Pierre-Luc Dubois notched four assists.
“Obviously, it’s a huge game and you can see, I think, everybody was on the same page,” Ovechkin said. “Everybody set the tone right away — huge hits, huge plays.”
Ovechkin has scored five times in the past three games to boost his goal total to a team-best 31 on the season and all-time total to an NHL-best 928 in his career.
“He’s still got it, I guess,” Wilson said of Ovechkin. “It’s incredible. It’s been so cool. I just continue to learn more and as a teammate, you’re inspired. Everybody in here sees what he is doing, and it drags everybody into the fight. He leads in so many different ways.”
Ovechkin collected a goal and an assist in each of the Capitals’ first two encounters versus New Jersey before being held off the scoresheet in the last meeting, a 2-1 Washington win on March 20. Logan Thompson made 30 saves to preserve the victory in that contest.
While the Capitals have an uphill climb to secure a postseason berth, the Devils (38-34-2, 78 points) inched closer to being eliminated from contention after dropping a 4-1 decision to the New York Rangers on Tuesday. New Jersey resides 10 points out of a wild-card position with just eight games remaining on its schedule.
“I thought we were outworked for sure,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I thought they played harder, played with more structure. We’ve been playing kind of a pretty loose game. It’s worked out in our favor a lot with our offense and things like that, and (Tuesday) was not a loose game.”
Connor Brown scored his fifth goal in his last eight games in the loss.
Jacob Markstrom, however, had a tough night. He yielded four goals on 23 shots and also found himself on the wrong end of a fight with fellow goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
“I felt like I needed to do something,” Markstrom said. “It’s frustrating letting in four goals. You stand back there and you want to hit someone, you want to get involved, you want to do something.
“As a goalie, that’s not really my job. Paul (Cotter) bumped into him, he sold it, and I saw him go after the huddle. We’re down 4-1, I just tried to get a spark and do something.”
