Alexander Ovechkin tied Canadiens legend Maurice (Rocket) Richard with his 544th career goal as the Washington Capitals extended it's wining streak to six games with a 4-1 victory over Montreal on Monday night.
Ovechkin, who has won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league's goal-scoring leader six times, tied Richard for 29th place on the NHL's all-time scoring list. He also had two assists to move one short of the 1,000 career points milestone.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Brett Connolly and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for Washington (26-9-5), which saw goalie Braden Holtby's career-best shutout string end at 169 minutes 12 seconds when Tomas Plekanec scored in the third period for Montreal (25-10-6).
Capitals coach Barry Trotz worked his 1,400th regular season game, tying Pat Quinn for eighth place all time and picked up his 684th win, tying Quinn for sixth. He is to catch Ron Wilson for seventh place with 1,401 games when Washington hosts Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
The Capitals were the sharper team in the first period and took the lead at 11:03 when Ovechkin faked a slapshot from the point and moved in for a wrist shot that produced an easy rebound for Backstrom to tuck in for his 10th of the season.
Former Canadien Lars Eller was serving an interference call when Plekanec tied it with one second left in the power play as he first hit the post with a backhand, then scored during the resulting scramble in front of Holtby at 7:18 of the third. The Capitals called for a review for goaltender interference, but video showed it was Holtby's teammate Brooks Orpik who knocked him over.