Alex Ovechkin scored his 20th goal of the season and the 750th of his NHL career to help the Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 Saturday night and snap a two-game skid.
Ovechkin became the second-fastest player to reach the 750-goal mark, doing so in his 1,222nd regular-season game. Wayne Gretzky, whose record of 894 Ovechkin is chasing, got to 750 in 1,001 games.
Ovechkin joined Marcel Dionne, Jaromir Jagr and Mats Sundin as the only players to score 20 or more goals in each of his first 17 seasons in the NHL.
After ending a two-game goal drought, Ovechkin now trails Jagr by 16 goals for third on the career list.
Rookie Aliaksei Protas scored his second career goal by following his own rebound in the first. Garnet Hathaway sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:27 remaining in regulation.
Eric Robinson scored the only goal of the night for the the Blue Jackets, who lost their fourth in a row in regulation. They have been outscored 18-6 during this losing streak.
