Mar 3, 2019 4 min read

Alex Ovechkin is so good he scored Sunday’s winning shootout goal without putting the puck in the net.

Ovechkin finished Washington’s fourth straight victory with one unusual play, and Braden Holtby made 22 saves in the Capitals’ 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers.

The 33-year-old Ovechkin was skating to his right in the fourth round of the tiebreaker when Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev threw his stick at the puck , knocking it away from the star winger. Ovechkin was credited with the goal after a review.

“I know 100 percent it’s a goal,” Ovechkin said. “I was surprised of the first reaction of the referees. It was nice we have replay.”

Carl Hagelin and Andre Burakovsky scored in the first period for Washington, which moved two points ahead of the Islanders for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Islanders lost at home to Philadelphia later Sunday.

Holtby said he knew it was over right after Ovechkin’s play in the shootout.

“Once it happened, I thought it was going to be a goal,” he said. “Right away, I thought they’d call it instantly. I’m not sure what the delay was. It’s a rule, he would have had a wide-open net if he didn’t do that. They made the right call and we came out with a big win.”

Capitals forward T.J. Oshie, no stranger to shootout success, especially in the Olympics, was surprised by the ending.

“It’s a first for me,” Oshie said. “It’s a crazy way to win. If he doesn’t throw (it) you’ve got to imagine, a guy like O is putting that in the back of the net. It’s a crazy way to win, but we’ll take it.”

Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Strome scored for New York. The Rangers lost their fourth in a row, including all three on their homestand.

Georgiev made 37 saves, including 20 in the second period. He stopped Ovechkin on a breakaway in overtime.

“It’s tough to explain,” Georgiev said of the shootout winner. “He faked the shot, I went down. As he was moving laterally, I kind of threw my leg and the stick at the same time. It’s a tough call.

“That’s the referee’s call to see what happened. I feel like I had my pad on the ice at the moment he was about to shoot, so it’s not like the empty net was there. Tough call.”

Ottawa 3, Florida 2: Rudolfs Balcers scored the tiebreaking goal in the second period and Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 Sunday, snapping a seven-game losing streak. Brian Gibbons and Zack Smith also scored for the Senators. Anders Nilsson stopped 30 shots. Troy Brouwer and Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers, and Roberto Luongo made 30 saves. Florida has lost four straight.

Philadelphia 4, N.Y. Islanders 1: Brian Elliott stopped 29 shots and the Philadelphia Flyers beat New York 4-1, helping knock the Islanders out of first place in the Metropolitan Division. Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Scott Laughton and Sean Couturier each scored for Philadelphia. Elliott lost his shutout bid when Adam Pelech scored with 4:45 left. The Flyers are 4-0-1 in their last five games to move within five points of the final wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Anaheim 2, Colorado 1: Jakob Silfverberg capped off a memorable weekend with a goal and an assist and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 to snap a five-game losing streak. Silfverberg signed a $26.5 million, five-year extension Saturday. He leads the team in goals with 17 and became the ninth player to score 100 goals with Anaheim.

Vegas 3, Vancouver 0: Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 19 shots to earn his second straight shutout and lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 3-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Fleury moved within one victory of tying Jacques Plante for eighth on the NHL’s all-time wins list, while also earning 18,303 in attendance free Krispy Kreme doughnuts as part of promotion each time the 15-year veteran gets a shutout at home.