Ovechkin scores his 879th to move closer to Gretzky’s record, as Capitals beat Flyers 4-3

PHILADELPHIA — Alex Ovechkin scored his 879th career goal to move within 16 of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goals record and the Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 on Thursday night.

Ovechkin scored with 53 seconds remaining in the first period, taking a centering pass from Martin Fehervary and flicking it past Ivan Fedotov to tie the game at 1-1. It was Ovechkin’s 26th goal of the season.

Jakob Chychrun scored the winner with 7:55 remaining off a cross-ice pass from John Carlson.

Connor McMichael and Lars Eller also scored for Washington, which trailed 3-2 after two periods. Charlie Lindgren made 19 saves.

Matvei Michkov scored two goals and Tyson Foerster had one for the Flyers, who dropped their fifth straight game and have lost seven of their last eight. Fedotov made 14 saves.

Michkov now has 16 goals this season, second only to San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini for most among rookies.

Capitals: Washington has registered at least one point in 17 of 18 games (12-1-5).

Flyers: The offense scored three goals for just the second time in the last nine games. Philadelphia has struggled to score and has been relying on several AHL players and reserves due to injuries and travel issues of two new players – Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier – who took a week to arrive from Calgary. They showed up during the second period of Thursday’s game.

Lindgren made several saves in the final seconds, including a sprawling stop on Foerster from the doorstep to preserve the lead.

Ovechkin has scored in four straight games. It was the 34th time in his career that he’s scored in four consecutive games, which ties Mario Lemieux for the most in NHL history.

Washington is off until Sunday when its hosts Utah while the Flyers host Pittsburgh on Saturday night.