WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin thought he had a chance to score

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin thought he had a chance to score every time he shot the puck and came away disappointed he finished with just one goal.Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 29th goal of the season Los Angeles Kings T-Shirts Womens , extended his point streak to a career-best 14 games and had the shootout winner to help the Washington Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 on Saturday night. The Russian superstar and reigning playoff MVP continued one of the best runs of his career and fell two goals shy of becoming the first player in league history to record a hat trick in three consecutive games.“It would be nice to get another hatty or whatever,” Ovechkin said. “But nothing you can do about it.”Ovechkin did just about everything he could, putting eight shots on net and beating Buffalo goaltender Carter Hutton for the tying goal in the second period. He has 17 goals and six points during his point streak and has scored in six games in a row.An audible gasp came from the crowd each time Ovechkin had the puck on his stick in the offensive zone, and the goal was his 10th in the past six games. Yet Ovechkin sounded like a player who came up empty.“I have pretty good chances, but today, it was not my day,” Ovechkin said. “You can’t score every night.”Ovechkin is testing that limit. He’s six ahead of the next-closest player in the league, Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine, and is on pace to surpass 60 goals at age 33.“Such a threat, especially when he’s confident and he’s shooting the puck where he wants Sam Reinhart Jersey ,” said Brett Connolly, who scored the Capitals’ first goal. “He’s a bull out there, it seems like he keeps getting better and better every year.”With their captain leading the way, the defending Stanley Cup champions are on a five-game winning streak and have won 12 of their past 14 games.“There’s a really strong spirit in this team,” said Jakub Vrana, who also scored for Washington. “We just going to build on that, and it’s going to help us in the future.”Sabres captain Jack Eichel scored twice and 2018 first overall pick Rasmus Dahlin had a power-play goal for Buffalo, which had its two-game winning streak snapped. Hutton stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced in regulation and overtime, including seven from Ovechkin.“He made some big saves all game,” defenseman Zach Bogosian said. “He did a real good job of keeping us in it and making some big saves at key times. That’s what both of our goalies have done all year. It’s been good to see.”Buffalo’s power play cashed in twice plus Eichel’s just after a Washington penalty expired Zemgus Girgensons Jersey , and its penalty kill was 4 for 4 against the Capitals’ vaunted unit. Going toe-to-toe and picking up a point against the defending champions showed the Sabres they could hang with the league’s best.“It’s a really good team over there,” Eichel said. “They put a lot on us. They’re not the Stanley Cup champs for no reason. They have a lot of really good players over there, some guys who are going to go to the Hall of Fame, and I think we did a lot of good things.”NOTES: Capitals G Pheonix Copley stopped 25 of 28 shots in regulation and overtime and two of three in the shootout. … Sabres D Nathan Beaulieu was injured on a hit by Tom Wilson in the second period and did not return. Coach Phil Housley said Beaulieu would be re-evaluated … The Sabres suspended F Patrik Berglund indefinitely for failing to report to the team. Berglund missed the past two games with what was initially called an illness. … Buffalo D Marco Scandella returned after missing eight games with an upper-body injury.UP NEXTSabres: Visit the Boston Bruins on Sunday.Capitals: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday. TAMPA, Fla. (AP) There was no letdown for the Washington Capitals. Just more winning hockey.Putting an emotional second-round victory over playoff nemesis and two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh behind them, the Caps got a power-play goal and assist from Alex Ovechkin in his Eastern Conference finals debut and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Friday night.Braden Holtby stopped 19 shots and Michal Kempny, Jay Beagle and Lars Eller also scored for the Caps, who are alive beyond the second round of the playoffs for the first time in Ovechkin’s brilliant 13-year career.”We had a really good start. We didn’t give them much,” Ovechkin said.”I think it’s we realized we just have to play our way,” the Washington captain added. ”It doesn’t matter which position we are Los Angeles Kings Hoodies Womens , which round it is. Everybody was paying the price.”Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, which trailed 4-0 heading into the third period.Game 2 is Sunday night at Amalie Arena, where Tampa Bay also lost Game 1 in the second round against Boston.”It’s just one game. That’s the way we have to look at it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. ”We’ve got to get back to what got us to the conference final.”The Capitals dominated in improving to 6-1 on the road this postseason, with Kempny giving them an early 1-0 lead.Ovechkin made it 2-0 a mere 5 seconds after the Lightning thought they had tied it in the closing seconds of the opening period. But Nikita Kucherov’s would-be breakaway goal was waved off because Tampa Bay had too many men on the ice.T.J. Oshie won the ensuing faceoff in the Lightning zone, getting the puck to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who fed Ovechkin for the Washington superstar’s ninth goal this postseason – 55th overall in 110 career playoff games – at 19:54 of the first.”That gave us a real boost … gave us some breathing room,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.Beagle and Eller scored in the first seven minutes of the second period for a 4-0 lead. Up to that point, the Lightning – the NHL’s highest-scoring team during the regular season – had allowed as many goals as they had shots.Tampa Bay replaced goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy with Louis Domingue after the starter allowed four goals on 25 shots through two periods.Holtby lost his shutout when Stamkos, assisted by Kucherov and Victor Hedman http://www.flamesshoponline.com/authentic-jaromir-jagr-jersey , scored at 3:45 of the third. Palat added his goal at 13:03, trimming Washington’s lead to 4-2.Stamkos and Kucherov had one shot between them in the first two periods.The Lightning dropped the opener of a series for the second straight round. They rebounded from a lopsided Game 1 loss at home to Boston by winning four straight to advance to the conference finals for the third time in four years.The Capitals defeated Columbus and Pittsburgh in six games to reach the conference finals for the first time since 1998, when they beat the Buffalo Sabres.”That’s a good hockey team over there, and they outplayed us tonight,” Stamkos said. ”In hindsight, we were in this same position in the last round and found a way to respond.”Added Lightning winger Ryan Callahan: ”We’ve just got to put it behind us. We’ve been in this situation before, unfortunately. You don’t want to be, but you don’t have to look too far to draw back on the way we responded against Boston. We have to do the same here.”NOTES: Ovechkin has 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) in 13 playoff games. Kuznetsov had two assists, giving him nine this postseason. … The teams are meeting in the playoffs for just the third time Johnny Gaudreau Jersey Kids , first since 2011. Tampa Bay won both previous meetings, including a sweep in the Eastern Conference semifinals seven years ago. Stamkos and Hedman are the only players remaining on the Lightning roster from that series. … The Capitals played without top center Nicklas Backstrom (hand), who’s considered day-to-day. Winger Tom Wilson, meanwhile, returned from a three-game suspension for a hit on Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese during in the second round. … The Caps have outscored opponents 14-3 in the opening period this postseason. They’ve won seven of 10 games in which they’ve scored first.—