capitals 5, sharks 1

Alex Ovechkin scored his 887th career goal Saturday to move within eight of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record and Washington beat San Jose.

Ovechkin deflected a shot from Martin Fehervary past Georgi Romanov with 9:06 remaining in the third period. Romanov is the NHL-record 182nd goalie that Ovechkin has scored on.

The 39-year-old Russian star has 34 goals on the season. He remains on pace before the end of this season to pass Gretzky’s mark of 894 that long seemed unapproachable before the end of this season.

Ovechkin also had an assist on Dylan Strome’s game-opening goal to help Washington win for the sixth time in seven games.

Macklin Celebrini scored for San Jose.

sabres 4,

golden knights 3, so

Alex Tuch scored the deciding goal in the shootout to lead Buffalo to a win against Vegas.

penguins 7, devils 3

Erik Karlsson scored a power-play goal and Pittsburgh beat New Jersey.

lightning 6, bruins 2

Anthony Cirelli scored twice and Tampa Bay held Boston without a shot in the second period.

senators 4, maple leafs 2

Claude Giroux broke a second-period tie on a power play and Ottawa beat Toronto.

canadiens 3, panthers 1

Cole Caufield scored his team-leading 33rd goal and added an assist to help Montreal beat Florida.

hurricanes 5, flyers 0

Mark Jankowski scored twice, Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 26 shots for his second shutout of the season, and Carolina beat Philadelphia.

rangers 4, blue jackets 0

Vincent Trocheck scored twice in the third period, Igor Shesterkin made 18 saves for his fifth shutout this season and New York beat Columbus.

blues 5, wild 1

Jordan Kyrou scored three goals for his fifth career hat trick and St. Louis beat Minnesota.

kings 1, predators 0, ot

Los Angeles’ Quinton Byfield scored 3:20 into overtime to beat St. Louis.