Alex Ovechkin was in no mood to talk about his 200th NHL goal – and Washington coach Bruce Boudreau wasn’t about to praise the Los Angeles Kings.
“We didn’t play well for two periods, and they just used our mistakes,” Ovechkin, his voice a low monotone, said after Washington’s 5-4 loss Thursday night. “I don’t want to talk about my personal stats today.”
Anze Kopitar had two goals and an assist to help the Kings win for the fifth time in six games and end the Capitals’ winning streak at three.
“They’ve beaten us twice and we’re a better team than them,” Boudreau said.
The Southeast Division-leading Capitals entered the night second in the Eastern Conference, while the Kings came in two points out of last place in the West. Plus, Washington was 21-3-1 at home, and was backed by a sellout crowd of 18,277.
“Maybe we were giving them too much respect in the beginning,” Kopitar said. “But after we picked up our game, I think we played pretty good.”
otout; Nashville 4, Anaheim 2; Colorado 3, Dallas 2; and Florida 3, the New York Islanders 2.
In Washington, Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 37th goal with about 9 1/2 minutes left to join Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux as the only players to reach 200 goals in their first four seasons. Ovechkin has played 296 regular-season games.
“We just stopped playing,” Ovechkin said. “Didn’t play our system. We didn’t finish checks. We didn’t shoot the puck. We didn’t play our game.”
Kyle Calder, Michal Handzus and Patrick O’Sullivan added goals for Los Angeles. Mike Green, Brooks Laich and Alexander Semin also scored for Washington.
Hurricanes 4, Sharks 3, SO
At San Jose, Calif., backup goalie Michael Leighton made 37 saves in his first start since Christmas, and Sergei Samsonov scored the shootout winner for Carolina.
Ray Whitney tied it with 12:30 left in the third period for the Hurricanes, and Samsonov and Matt Cullen also scored in regulation. Carolina won without injured captain Rod Brind’Amour and Eric Staal, the All-Star forward who left the game before the third period because of a lower-body injury.
Ryane Clowe, Alexei Semenov and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for San Jose, and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 26 shots. The Sharks have lost consecutive home games for the first time this season.
Bruins 4, Senators 3, SO
‘s fifth shootout attempt after Tim Thomas stopped all five Senators shooters.
Thomas made a sensational glove stop on Dany Heatley after turning aside Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson, Brendan Bell and Antoine Vermette.
Axelsson secured Boston’s fourth straight victory when he put a backhander between Brian Elliott’s pad after the Ottawa goalie stopped the Bruins’ first four attempts.
Chuck Kobasew, Zdeno Chara and Blake Wheeler scored in regulation for NHL-leading Boston. Nick Foligno, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza scored for Ottawa.
Blackhawks 5, Flames 2
At Calgary, Alberta, Adam Burish broke a tie midway through the second period, and Nikolai Khabibulin made 29 saves to help Chicago improve to 16-4-5.
Andrew Ladd had a goal and two assists, Dave Bolland, Colin Fraser and Troy Brouwer also scored, and Matt Walker added three assists after entering the night with four assists in 37 games. The Blackhawks are 4-1-0 on their eight-game trip.
Todd Bertuzzi and Dion Phaneuf scored for Calgary.
Oilers 2, Blues 1, SO
At St. Louis, Robert Nilsson and Sam Gagner scored in a shootout for Edmonton, and Dwayne Roloson stopped both Blues attempts.
Sheldon Souray opened the scoring late in the second period for Edmonton, and Jay McClement tied it with a short-handed goal early in the third.
Predators 4, Ducks 2
28 saves, and Ryan Jones, Jason Arnott, Martin Erat and Vernon Fiddler scored for the Predators.
Nashville has won three in a row and four of their last five.
Corey Perry scored twice for Anaheim.
Avalanche 3, Stars 2
At Denver, Cody McLeod broke a tie with 7 minutes left, and Colorado snapped Dallas’ winning streak at five games.
Milan Hejduk and Marek Svatos also scored for the Avalanche. Loui Eriksson scored his 25th goal and Steve Ott also scored for Dallas.
Panthers 3, Islanders 2
At Sunrise, Fla., Richard Zednik’s highlight-reel goal in the second period helped surging Florida end New York’s season-high winning streak at four games.
Defensemen Jay Bouwmeester and Karlis Skrastins also scored for the Panthers, 9-2-3 since Jan. 1. Josh Bailey and Trent Hunter scored power-play goals for New York.
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