Ovechkin scores and Capitals beat Bruins

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Ovechkin scores and Capitals beat Bruins

2025-04-02 13:23 Last Updated At：13:31

BOSTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his 891st career goal, moving him four away from passing Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record, and Dylan Strome broke a third-period tie on Tuesday night to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins.

Nic Dowd and Tom Wilson also scored for Washington. Charlie Lindgren made 21 saves to help the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals snap a a three-game losing streak.

David Pastrnak had two goals, Vinni Lettieri scored one and Jeremy Swayman stopped 27 shots for Boston, which lost its ninth in a row.

Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead with about four minutes left in the first period, pushing a cross-crease pass from Strome into an open net. He has 12 goals in his last 18 games and eight games remaining this season to catch Gretzky.

The 39-year-old Russian also shot wide on an empty net in the final minutes.

CANADIENS 3, PANTHERS 2, OT

MONTREAL (AP) — Nick Suzuki scored his second of the game 29 seconds into overtime as Montreal came back for a dramatic victory over Florida in the second game of a home-and-home.

Suzuki also tied the game with 8.4 seconds remaining in regulation.

Josh Anderson also scored for Montreal (35-30-9) and Sam Montembeault stopped 25 shots.

Lane Hutson earned three assists to pad that total to 57 this season, passing Chris Chelios for second-most by a rookie defenseman in NHL history.

SABRES 5, SENATORS 2

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Rasmus Dahlin and Alex Tuch each had a goal and an assist, and Buffalo swept their season series against Ottawa with a win.

Buffalo outscored the Senators 17-5 in their four meetings this season.

The Senators were without captain Brady Tkachuk, who is sidelined with an upper-body injury from a hit by Ryan Graves in Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh. This marks only the fourth game Tkachuk has missed in the past three years.

The Sabres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first scoring twice on five shots.

Linus Ullmark made a save on Mattias Samuelsson but lost sight of the rebound, providing Tuch with an easy tap in.

BLUE JACKETS 8, PREDATORS 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko scored three goals for his third career hat trick and added an assist, and Columbus beat Nashville.

Sean Monahan had two goals and two assists, Adam Fantilli had two goals and an assist, Dante Fabbro had a goal and an assist, and Zach Werenski and Kent Johnson each had two assists for Columbus. Elvis Merzlikins stopped 24 shots.

Filip Forsberg, Michael Bunting, Justin Barron and Jordan Oesterle scored for Nashville, and Luke Evangelista had two assists. Juuse Saros gave up a season-high seven goals on 26 shots through two periods, and Justus Annunen had 10 saves in the third.

LIGHTNING 4, ISLANDERS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots, and Tampa Bay beat New York for their fourth straight win to inch closer to clinching a playoff spot.

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 20th of the season, Victor Hedman also scored and Nick Paul added an empty-netter for the Lightning. Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point each added two assists.

Bo Horvat scored a short-handed goal for New York and Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves as the Islanders lost their sixth straight (0-4-2), further diminishing their slim playoff hopes.

BLUES 2, RED WINGS 1, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Cam Fowler scored with 1:34 remaining in overtime and St. Louis won their 10th straight game, over Detroit.

Jordan Kyrou also scored and Jordan Binnington made 20 saves for St. Louis, which moved into a tie with idle Minnesota for the first Western Conference wild-card spot with 88 points. Minnesota holds the tiebreaker with one more regulation and overtime win.

J.T. Compher scored and Cam Talbot made 35 saves for Detroit, which is four points behind Montreal and two points behind Columbus and the New York Rangers in the race for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.

Fowler scored his ninth goal of the season on a feed from Robert Thomas, who has 11 assists in his last five games.

UTAH 3, FLAMES 1

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Kevin Stenlund and Barrett Hayton scored for Utah in a win over Calgary.

Clayton Keller had an empty-netter and Karel Vejmelka stopped 32 shots to help Utah get its second straight win.

Rasmus Andersson scored for Calgary and Dustin Wolf finished with 25 saves. The Flames lost for the third time in four games (1-2-1).

OILERS 3, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Leon Draisaitl added to his NHL-leading goal total by scoring on a 5-on-3 power play to put Edmonton ahead for good, but Vegas clinched a playoff berth despite the loss.

The Golden Knights, who had their season-high six-game winning streak snapped, were assured a playoff spot when the Calgary Flames were beaten 3-1 by the Utah Hockey Club.

Edmonton kept its slim hopes alive for the Pacific Division title, pulling to within seven points of the first-place Golden Knights. Both teams have eight games left.

DUCKS 4, SHARKS 3, S0

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mason McTavish scored the only goal in the shootout, and Anaheim beat San Jose.

Trevor Zegras and Sam Colangelo each had a goal and an assist, Jackson LaCombe also scored for Anaheim, and McTavish had three assists. Lukas Dostal stopped 28 shots as the Ducks won for the fourth time in six games.

Alexander Wennberg, Shakir Mukhamadullin and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for San Jose. Alexandar Georgiev finished with 34 saves as the Sharks lost their third straight (0-2-1).

McTavish scored in the third round and Tyler Toffoli’s attempt went wide right on the Sharks’ last try to give the Ducks the win.

KINGS 4 JETS 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andrei Kuzmenko, Adrian Kempe and captain Anze Kopitar each had a goal and an assist in Los Angeles’ victory over NHL-leading Winnipeg.

Trevor Moore also scored for the Kings, who moved two points ahead of Edmonton for second place in the Pacific Division.

Darcy Kuemper made 18 saves as Los Angeles earned its 11th victory in 14 games while dominating this meeting of the NHL’s top two defensive teams.

Cole Perfetti scored his 17th goal and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 16 shots for the Jets, whose three-game winning streak ended in the opener of a three-game road trip.

Pogacar wins Tour of Flanders with another solo attack, Kopecky makes history in women's race

2025-04-07 04:26 Last Updated At：04:31

OUDENAARDE, Belgium (AP) — Another blistering attack from Tadej Pogacar saw the world champion win the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time on Sunday.

In the women's race, Belgian world champion Lotte Kopecky made history as the first female cyclist to win three editions of the event.

Pogacar had plenty of time to raise his arms above his head and soak up the applause of the crowd as he soloed to victory after taking off on the third and final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont.

The three-time Tour de France champion had launched his last and decisive attack on the penultimate climb – about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the finish — and not even defending champion Mathieu van der Poel could stay on his wheel.

“I’m so happy to win in this jersey this race,” said the UAE Team Emirates rider. “The plan was to go from (Oude Kwaremont) and we followed the plan even though we had some crashes in the team … but we made it and we stick to the plan.”

Pogacar finished 1 minute, 1 second ahead of Mads Pedersen, who edged out Van der Poel in a four-man sprint for second, just ahead of Wout van Aert and Jasper Stuyven.

Also known as De Ronde (The Tour), the Tour of Flanders is one of cycling’s most challenging one-day races and was first held in 1913. This year’s 268.9-kilometer (167-mile) route featured 16 short but punishing climbs and several cobblestone sections.

It was a second victory for Pogacar after he won in 2023. The Slovenian didn’t defend his title last year, when Van der Poel claimed a record-equaling third win.

It was expected to be another episode of the great rivalry between Pogacar and Van der Poel, who had won the recent Milan-San Remo, and so it proved.

Van der Poel had escaped unscathed from an early crash and the duo played cat and mouse with each other in the final 50 kilometers (31 miles), with each matching the other’s attacks, before Pogacar left the Dutch cyclist and the other hopefuls in the distance.

“I was already on the limit from quite far,” Van der Poel said. "The crash of course was not ideal, but I think we put up a good fight with the team and I did everything I could and I’m happy with the podium.

“Of course it’s never good to be in a crash but I think the damage was still quite okay for the crash, I was lucky.”

The Tour of Flanders is one of the “monuments” of cycling — the five most prestigious one-day events in the sport — along with Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia.

The two Pogacar has yet to win are Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, which has even tougher cobbles than Flanders. Pogacar is going to attempt the grueling French classic for the first time next Sunday.

“It’s a completely different race, but I will accept the challenge and try to do my best,” Pogacar said. “I know this Flanders suits me a bit better, but you never know.”

It was a closer Tour of Flanders for Kopecky, who edged a four-way sprint finish ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Liane Lippert and Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney.

Kopecky also won in 2022 and 2023.

Elisa Longo Borghini was also chasing a third victory but crashed about 40 kilometers into the race. The Italian strugged on for a further 10 kilometers before abandoning.

AP cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling