Columbus Blue Jackets at Washington Capitals

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

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.

WSH leads series 1-0