NHL roundup: Sunday's action on the ice

The Washington Capitals lost superstar Alex Ovechkin(notes) on Sunday, and then they lost the game.

Raffi Torres(notes) scored his second goal of the third period with 23 seconds left and R.J. Umberger(notes) got his second of the game 1:45 into overtime as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat Washington 5-4.

"He stepped up for sure," the Blue Jackets' Rick Nash(notes) said of Torres. "That first one was huge. Good battle down low, good wrap-around."

Ovechkin left the game with an injury in the second period, but his teammates tried to use his absence for motivation in the third period.

"It was kind of a rallying cry," said Quintin Laing(notes), who scored his first goal of the season in the third. "We wanted to prove this team isn't about one guy, it's about a team, and we wanted to show people we can come back."

Columbus led 2-1 going into the final period, but fell behind after Brooks Laich(notes) scored twice in a span of 2:08 midway through the third. Torres answered Laich's two goals by tying the game 3-3 with a wraparound at 13:36.

Laing regained the lead for Washington with 3:26 left in the third, but Torres tied it again in the final minute.

"I thought we played a pretty good third," Capitals centre Brendan Morrison(notes) said. "We rallied and did a lot of good things offensively, and then we just go and shoot ourselves in the foot. It is frustrating because it was a game we should have won."

Elsewhere in the NHL it was: N.Y. Rangers 1 Boston 0; San Jose 5 Carolina 1; and Vancouver 3 Colorado 0.

At Washington, Ovechkin was involved in a shoving match in front of the Blue Jackets bench barely a minute into the second period. A few minutes later, the Russian got tangled up with Torres and fell to the ice. After he got up, he grimaced and gingerly skated off the ice, heading straight to the locker-room.

After the game, Ovechkin declined to comment on the nature of the injury, other than calling it "upper body."

"I can't tell you how I got hurt," he said. "It's day-to-day."

Nash scored the Blue Jackets' first goal at the five-minute mark of the second period. He sped past defenceman Mike Green(notes) and then put a move on goalie Jose Theodore(notes) for his seventh goal in seven career games against Washington.

Nash also had two assists. He set up Umberger's overtime winner, and had a hand in a fluke play that led to Umberger's first.

On a power play, Nash dumped the puck into the Capitals zone down the right side. As Theodore went behind the net to play the puck, it took a strange bounce off the boards and ended up in front of the goal, where Umberger put it into the empty net.

"It's a big win, but we've still got a lot of work to do," Nash said. "When we play on the road, we can't be taking too many penalties. We made some defensive errors when the game was tied. Just got to sharpen up those areas."

Ovechkin missed all of the late action after leaving the game at the 6:10 mark of the second period, but he was in the middle of things as the second period started.

During a break in play barely a minute into the period, Ovechkin was bumped by Jason Chimera(notes). Ovechkin responded with a shove and players from both teams skated over to the scrum. Ovechkin, Chimera and the Blue Jackets' Jared Boll(notes) all received minors for roughing, and Boll was also issued a misconduct.

Ovechkin downplayed the incident afterward.

"It was just a moment of the game," Ovechkin said. "Nothing happened. He just hit me, I hit him, there was a little battle there, nothing happened."

Chimera said the scuffle was a result of a hard hit by Ovechkin earlier in the game.

"He kind of (threw) a punch at me, and then Boller kind of got into it and it was a mess. I hope he's all right," Chimera said. "There was no intent to hurt somebody out there. He just hit me pretty hard that one shift, so I just let him know 'You're not going to hit me like that all game,' so I pushed him a bit, he punched me back in the face, and a couple shifts later he's off the ice, so I hope he's all right."

Canucks 3 Avalanche 0

At Vancouver, Mason Raymond(notes) and Ryan Kesler(notes) each had a goal and an assist, and Andrew Raycroft(notes) made 18 saves to lead the Canucks over Colorado.

Tanner Glass(notes) rounded out the scoring midway through the third period as the Canucks won for the sixth time in their last seven home games.

Craig Anderson(notes) made 17 saves as the Western Conference-leading Avalanche lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season.

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Rangers 1 Bruins 0

At New York, Henrik Lundqvist(notes) stopped 29 shots for his 150th NHL victory and 21st career shutout, while Marian Gaborik(notes) returned from injury and scored for the fourth straight game.

The Rangers returned home from a disappointing road trip in which they went 0-2 without Gaborik, beating the stingy Bruins.

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Sharks 5 Hurricanes 1

At Raleigh, N.C., Kent Huskins(notes) and Brad Staubitz(notes) scored 1:22 apart in the second period and Evgeni Nabokov(notes) made 25 saves as San Jose won its fifth straight.

Douglas Murray(notes), Marc-Edouard Vlasic(notes) and Patrick Marleau(notes) also scored for the Pacific Division-leading Sharks. San Jose got three goals from defencemen in their first win in Carolina since Oct. 24, 2000.