NHL

Columbus Blue Jackets at Washington Capitals

· National Hockey League

McMichael, Ovechkin power surging Capitals past Blue Jackets 7-2

Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Washington Capitals: Game Highlights

McMichael and Ovechkin both have goals in three straight games for Washington, which advances to 8-2 on the season.

Ovechkin is 36 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's record. He's currently on pace to finish with 49 goals, which would set him up to hit 895 later this season.

Both Ovechkin and McMichael helped ignite Washington's offense as the team managed a five-goal first period, where all four lines got on the scoresheet. Damon Severson and Kevin Labanc scored for the Blue Jackets, who dropped both games of their back-to-back.

Logan Thompson made 34 saves and remains undefeated so far in his Capitals' tenure. Daniil Tarasov stopped 15 of 22 shots for Columbus.

Takeaways Blue Jackets: Columbus outshot Washington, but the defense struggled in front of Tarasov as the team gave up six goals for the second consecutive game. The Blue Jackets were outscored 12-4 in this back-to-back series.

Capitals: Offense continues to come easily for the surging Caps, which wasn't the story last season. They've scored at least five goals in five of the last seven games.

Key moment Aliaksei Protas got the scoring started just 56 seconds in on a 2-on-0 break with Dylan Strome, who also had a three-point night, for his third goal in as many games.

Key stat Ovechkin is up to six goals in 10 games to open the 2024-25 season. Last year, it took him 30 games to hit that number, which also came against the Blue Jackets.

Up Next The Capitals visit the Hurricanes on Sunday, and The Blue Jackets head out west to face the Sharks on Tuesday.

Regular Season Series

WSH leads series 1-0

Scoring Summary

Goal 1st Period 0:56 Aliaksei Protas Goal (4) Snap Shot, assists: Dylan Strome (11), Alex Ovechkin (6)
Goal 1st Period 1:42 Connor McMichael Goal (6) Wrist Shot, assists: Rasmus Sandin (5)
Goal 1st Period 7:28 Andrew Mangiapane Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Jakub Vrana (2), Hendrix Lapierre (1)
Goal 1st Period 14:34 Alex Ovechkin Goal (6) Slap Shot, assists: Dylan Strome (12), Aliaksei Protas (7)
Goal 1st Period 14:58 Nic Dowd Goal (4) Backhand, assists: Trevor van Riemsdyk (7), Brandon Duhaime (2)
Goal 2nd Period 0:49 Damon Severson Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Adam Fantilli (3)
Goal 2nd Period 4:51 Connor McMichael Goal (7) Snap Shot, assists: Tom Wilson (3), Pierre-Luc Dubois (5)
Goal 2nd Period 14:36 Kevin Labanc Goal (1) Poke, assists: Zachary Aston-Reese (2), Sean Monahan (5)
Goal 3rd Period 18:34 Dylan Strome Goal (4) Snap Shot, assists: Alex Ovechkin (7), Taylor Raddysh (3)

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/cbj.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originCBJ https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/wsh.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originWSH
10 Blocked Shots 30
17 Hits 14
10 Takeaways 4
36 Shots 22
0 Power Play Goals 0
3 Power Play Opportunities 1
0.0 Power Play Percentage 0.0
0 Short Handed Goals 0
0 Shootout Goals 0
38 Faceoffs Won 25
60.3 Faceoff Win Percent 39.7
14 Giveaways 21
1 Total Penalties 3
2 Penalty Minutes 6

Game Information

Capital One Arena

Location: Washington, DC
Attendance: 17,666 | Capacity:

2024-25 Metropolitan Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Carolina 14 5 28 0
New Jersey 13 7 28 2
Washington 13 5 27 1
NY Rangers 12 5 25 1
NY Islanders 7 8 19 5
Columbus 8 9 18 2
Philadelphia 8 10 18 2
Pittsburgh 7 11 18 4
Full Standings