Detroit, MI
Monday’s hockey: Capitals pass Wings in standings, Ovechkin joins Howe in elite class
Calgary, Alberta — Alex Ovechkin scored twice and became the third player in NHL history to have at least 20 goals in 19 consecutive seasons as the Washington Capitals beat the Calgary Flames 5-2 on Monday night.
The 38-year-old Ovechkin had two power-play goals in the second period as Washington won its third straight game. He joined former Detroit Red Wings Gordie Howe (22) and Brendan Shanahan (19) as the only players to achieve the goal-scoring feat.
Dylan Strome, Hendrix Lapierre and Tom Wilson also scored for Washington (33-25-9), which moved into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of idle Detroit. It’s the first time the Capitals have occupied a playoff spot since Jan. 2.
In fact, since Washington lost in Detroit, 8-3, on Feb. 27, the Capitals have gone 6-3, including consecutive road wins in Seattle, Vancouver and Calgary. They’ll begin a four-game homestand against Toronto on Wednesday, Carolina on Saturday, Winnipeg on Sunday and then the Wings on Tuesday, March 26.
Kevin Rooney and MacKenzie Weegar scored for Calgary (33-30-5). The Flames finished 2-2-0 in a four-game homestand.
Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren had 34 saves and improved to 18-11-5. He has won five of his last six games with a .956 save percentage.
Calgary rookie Dustin Wolf allowed four goals on 32 shots in his third straight start and saw his record dip to 3-4-1. Wolf had allowed three goals on 67 shots in winning his last two games.
Ovechkin’s 20th goal of the season made it 2-0 at 5:58 of the second period. Ovechkin went to the net where he neatly deflected a hard centring pass from Max Pacioretty (Michigan) into the top corner. After pumping his arms in celebration, Ovechkin immediately looked over at Pacioretty and pointed, acknowledging the terrific pass.
Just over three minutes later, Washington’s power play struck again. Ovechkin set up at the top of the faceoff circle, stick cocked. When John Carlson slid a pass across, Ovechkin leaned into a slap shot that beat Wolf inside the near post.
Ovechkin has 12 goals in 20 games since the All-Star break after scoring just nine times in 44 games before that. He raised his career goal total to 843, second to – and 51 behind – Wayne Gretzky.
The Capitals have been helped in their playoff chase by a rejuvenated power play. On Jan. 18, Washington had the league’s third-worst power play at 13.3%. Over the last two months, including going 2-for-3 against Calgary, the Capitals have the league’s third-best power play at 29.1%.
Buffalo 6, (at) Seattle 2: Jeff Skinner had a hat trick, with his first goal coming during a three-goal outburst in the first six minutes to chase goaltender Joey Daccord, and the Buffalo cruised to a 6-2 victory.
Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch also scored in the first period for the Sabres, who earned their first win in six tries against the third-year Kraken. Buffalo is now three points behind Detroit and four points behind the Capitals for the second wild-card spot.
Owen Power (Michigan) had Buffalo’s other goal. Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves.
The three-goal barrage came after Jordan Eberle gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead just 24 seconds into the game. Matty Beniers (Michigan) scored on a power play late in the first but the Kraken lost their fifth straight game – all at home.
Playoff tracker
Atlantic
▶ Bruins (95)
▶ Panthers (94)
▶ Maple Leafs (85)
Metropolitan
▶ Rangers (94)
▶ Hurricanes (90)
▶ Flyers (76)
Wild card
▶ Lightning (78)
▶ Capitals (75)
(Top two wild-card teams make the playoffs)
▶ Red Wings (74)
▶ Islanders (73)
▶ Sabres (71)
▶ Pittsburgh (69)
▶ Devils (68)
Two Broncos earn awards
Western Michigan’s Logan Pietila was named forward of the week and teammate Max Koskipirtti rookie of the week in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) on Monday.
Pietila (Howell) led the Huskies to a 4-3 victory over Minnesota State in the Mason Cup semifinals on Saturday, scoring two goals, including the game-winner with 9.1 seconds left in regulation. Koskipirtti (Espoo, Finland) picked up a league-best two assists in Saturday’s victory.
N. Michigan’s Van Unen off to ECHL
Northern Michigan defenseman Mike Van Unen signed with the Adirondack Thunder, the ECHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils and Utica Comets.
Van Unen, 25, finished his fifth season at Northern Michigan University and recorded four points in 17 games. In 150 games with Northern Michigan, he recorded nine goals and 28 assists for 37 points and 181 minutes in penalties.
Michigan-area hockey this week
Tuesday
▶ Columbus at Red Wings, 7 (BSD/97.1)
▶ Grand Rapids at Manitoba, 11:30 a.m. (AHL/96.1)
Wednesday
▶ Grand Rapids at Manitoba, 8 (AHL/106.9/1300)
Thursday
▶ N.Y. Islanders at Red Wings, 7 (BSD/97.1)
Friday
▶ Michigan Tech at Bermidji State, 8
▶ NTDP U17’s at Green Bay, 8
Saturday
▶ Red Wings at Nashville, 5 (BSD/97.1)
▶ Grand Rapids at Rockford, 8 (AHL/106.9/1300)
▶ Michigan at Michigan State, 8 (Big Ten)
▶ NTDP U17’s at Madison, 8
Detroit Tigers blow lead, lose to Kansas City Royals on walk-off hit.
The Tigers lost, 4-3, to the Royals on Kyle Isbel’s walk-off single in the ninth inning.
Kansas City, Mo. — The losing streak is now five games. The road record is now an MLB-worst 6-16.
The Kansas City Royals prolonged the Tigers’ misery Saturday night with a relatively breezy 5-1 win at Kauffman Stadium.
Oh, and the Tigers might’ve lost another player in the process.
Right fielder Kerry Carpenter left the game in the third inning. He banged his left shoulder running into the side wall chasing Bobby Witt Jr.’s first-inning, two-run, inside-the-park home run.
Witt, a right-handed hitter, sliced a drive inside the bag at first. Carpenter chased it toward the side wall, but the ball caromed past him. Witt never stopped running.
Carpenter stayed in the game and even rolled an infield single in the second inning. But he was replaced by Wenceel Perez when the Royals came to bat in the third inning.
BOX SCORE: Royals 5, Tigers 1
He was being evaluated during the game.
The two-run homer by Witt ended up being more than the Tigers’ sputtering offense could overcome. But, for good measure, Michael Massey added a three-run home run off Ty Madden in the fourth inning.
Madden ended up being one of the few bright spots in the game for the Tigers. He pitched six innings and allowed just one other hit. He set down the last 11 hitters he faced.
He entered in the third inning after opener Burch Smith and lefty Tyler Holton worked one time through the Royals’ batting order.
Holton made a nifty escape in the first inning. With runners at second and third and one out, and two runs already in, Jac Caglianone hit a hard ground ball to second baseman Zach McKinstry, who was playing in on the grass.
McKinstry got the out at first. The runner at second, Carter Jensen, mistakenly broke for third where Vinnie Pasquantino was holding.
Spencer Torkelson threw to shortstop Kevin McGonigle who threw to catcher Jake Rogers once Pasquantino broke for home — your basic 4-3-6-2 double-play.
Not much else went the Tigers’ way.
Royals right-hander Michael Wacha snuffed out the few scoring opportunities the Tigers mustered.
He worked around an error and a McKinstry stolen base in the third innings. He got Jake Rogers to pop to shallow right field with runners at first and third and one out and then got Matt Vierling to ground out with the bases loaded in the fifth.
Wacha allowed two hits in seven innings. The Tigers put 18 balls in play against him with a soft average exit velocity of 84.4 mph.
The Tigers broke through in the eighth against lefty reliever Matt Strahm. And it was left-handed hitters who did the dirty work. Riley Greene, who extended his career-high on-base streak to 20 games, doubled home McGonigle.
This season is a long way from over but Tigers, 18-22, are in serious need a course correction.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
4Warn Weather – SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy skies. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. A few storms could be strong with gusty winds and hail. High: 71.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy skies, becoming partly cloudy skies late. Low: 45.
SUNDAY (MOTHER’S DAY): Mix of sunshine and clouds, cooler temperatures. High: 61.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Another chilly night. Low: 41.
MONDAY: Mostly sunny skies, remaining chilly. High: 58.
After a beautiful end to the week on Friday with sunshine and a little cloud cover, with warmer temperatures moving into the region as well, some of us are waking up to some patchy dense fog on Saturday morning. Some places south of M-59 are seeing reduced visibilities down to around a mile. If you do run into some patchy dense fog, be sure to use your low beams.
That warming trend continues into the start of the weekend on Saturday, but it also brings a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Another cold front will work through the region by Saturday afternoon and early Saturday evening and that will bring our thunderstorm chance. High temperature is warming into low 70s by Saturday afternoon.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed most of the region under a Marginal Risk (1 out of 5) on our severe weather scale for the start of the weekend. Gusty winds and hail are the primary threats as we work through the start of the weekend, but this will not be a widespread threat for severe thunderstorms.
Behind that cold front for the end of the weekend on Sunday, we will keep a mixture of sunshine and clouds into the forecast. High temperatures running about 10 to 15° cooler to end the weekend. Expect high to warm into the upper 50s to lower 60s by Sunday afternoon.
Drier weather sticks around for the start of next week, before another chance of rain moves into the region by the time we get to Tuesday. The cooler-than-average temperatures will continue into the start of next week as well. Expect high temperatures to remain in the 50s for Monday and Tuesday.
Temperature start to warm up by the middle of next week, and Drier weather moves back in by Wednesday behind another cold front moving into the region. Expect high temperatures into the lower 60s on Wednesday to warm into the upper 60s by the time we get to Thursday. Above average temperatures move back into the region as we look ahead into the end of the week, expect high temperatures back into the lower 70s by the time we get to Friday.
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