Washington's Alex Ovechkin celebrates as he scores an OT game-winner in Game 1 of the Capitals Stanley Cup first round playoff series vs. Montreal in Washington. (AP photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored the first playoff overtime goal of his NHL career to give the Washington Capitals a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Monday night.

Fresh off breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record for the most goals in league history 15 days earlier, Ovechkin’s second of the game 3:26 into OT allowed the Eastern Conference top-seeded Capitals to escape after blowing a two-goal third-period lead.

“A goal is a goal,” said Ovechkin, who went his first 44 playoff overtime games without scoring the winner. “It doesn’t matter. (And) in the playoffs, especially, it doesn’t matter who scores. I think it gives you confidence.

Before letting it slip away, they spent much of the night bullying the smaller, less experienced Canadiens with one big hit after another. That was part of a concerted effort to finish checks, and the Capitals had 42 hits with 14 of 18 skaters registering at least one.

“Everybody was hitting,” said Ovechkin, who led the way with seven. “All our guys get involved in the physical game.”

The physicality helped Washington tilt the ice, with Ovechkin scoring on the power play late in the first period and setting up Anthony Beauvillier’s goal in the second.

But it was far from easy.

Pierre-Luc Dubois’ penalty paved the way for Cole Caufield to start Montreal’s comeback bid with 9:28 left in regulation. The Capitals tried to hold on, and a defensive-zone mess allowed Nick Suzuki to tie it with 4:15 left on a shot into a wide-open net after goaltender Logan Thompson slid out of the crease.

Fortunately for them, Ovechkin scoring gave them a 1-0 series lead — Washington’s first playoff victory since May 7, 2022.

“Obviously sat back a bit too much in the third,” said Dylan Strome, who had two assists. “But a win’s a win, take it and move on.”

Thompson finished with 33 saves in his first NHL game action since getting injured when a shot dislodged his mask April 2 at Carolina.

“LT was great,” Strome said. “That save I remember in the first period on Suzuki on the 2 on 1. … It was a huge save at the time to kind of keep our momentum going and I love his game.”

At the other end of the ice, Sam Montembeault was arguably the Canadiens’ best player, stopping 29 of the 31 shots he faced in his Stanley Cup playoff debut.

“In terms of what we tried to do out there tonight, I felt it was a pretty good first game,” coach Martin St. Louis said. “There was a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately you don’t win, but we got some really good stuff from this game.”

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Washington before the series shifts to Montreal for Games 3 and 4 Friday and Sunday.

STARS 4, AVALANCHE 3 OT

Colin Blackwell scored 17:46 into overtime and the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in Game 2 on Monday night to even up their first-round Western Conference series.

Blackwell initially took a shot that ricocheted off teammate Sam Steel and Avs defenseman Samuel Girard in front of the net. But with the puck rolling loose on the ice, the fourth-line forward circled around and knocked it in for the winner.

Tyler Seguin, Thomas Harley and Evgenii Dadonov also had goals for Dallas, which avoided losing the first two games at home in its opening-round series for the second year in a row. The Stars did open with their eighth consecutive Game 1 loss since 2022, after going into this postseason with a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2).

Colorado had finished the final 1:26 of regulation and first 34 seconds of overtime on a power play after a hooking penalty against Mikko Rantenen, who the Avalanche traded on Jan. 24 to Carolina in the East, where he played only 13 games before getting traded March 7 back to the Central Division to Dallas and getting a new $96 million, eight-year contract.

Stars goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 34 shots. Mackenzie Blackwood had 35 saves in his second career playoff game, but the final shot went off his left shoulder.

Nathan MacKinnon scored on a power play for his third goal in this series for the Avalanche, and his 51st in the NHL playoffs. Jack Drury and Logan O’Connor also scored.

KINGS 6, OILERS 5

The Los Angeles Kings led Edmonton 4-0 moments before the second-period buzzer, and they were up 5-3 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the third. Both leads vanished under the blizzard of offense so often created by Connor McDavid and the Oilers at their playoff peak.

And then the Kings won their first-round series opener anyway on a profoundly ugly goal by Phillip Danault, who chunked a shot that somehow fluttered past Warren Foegele’s leaping screen with 42 seconds left.

The Kings have lost three straight first-round series to the mighty Oilers, so they’ll trade any style points for wins. They improbably got the first one Monday night, shrugging off McDavid’s spectacular tying goal with 1:28 left and surging past Edmonton .

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Zach Hyman and McDavid scored with an extra attacker to complete the Oilers’ tying comeback, but Los Angeles became the fourth team in Stanley Cup playoffs history to win in regulation despite blowing a four-goal lead.

JETS 2, BLUES 1

Mark Scheifele had a goal and assist, Kyle Connor scored his second consecutive game-winner in the third period, and the Winnipeg Jets beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1 on Monday night for a 2-0 lead in their opening-round playoff series.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 21 shots to help the Jets take a 2-0 playoff series lead for the first time in three seasons. The past two years, Winnipeg won the first game and then lost the next four to be eliminated.