COLUMBUS, Ohio — Anthony Mantha scored twice, and Alex Ovechkin and Connor Sheary each had a goal and an assist as the Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-2 Thursday night for their third straight win.
Martin Fehervary, Connor McMichael and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored, and Nikolas Backstrom added two assists as Washington improved to 6-0-1 in its last seven games. Vitek Vanecek stopped 39 shots for the Capitals, who pulled one point behind Boston for the top wild card in the Eastern Conference and increased their lead over Columbus to 13 points for the second wild card.