WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored for the first time this season, Dylan Strome added a pair of goals and the Washington Capitals beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Friday night for their fourth straight victory.
Ovechkin's third-period shot pinged off the left post and in, and the crowd roared its approval when the counter above one corner of the ice was flipped over to 898, his new career total. The NHL's career leader in goals also had an assist as part of a dominant showing at home for Washington.
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Washington Capitals center Dylan Strome (17) celebrates after his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson watches the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals center Aliaksei Protas (21) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Logan Thompson allowed only ex-Capital Marcus Johansson's tally in the second. That tied it at 1, but Aliaksei Protas answered 31 seconds later.
Minnesota entered the game with the league's top power play, having scored on 10 of 21 opportunities. But the Capitals only took two penalties and were able to kill them off. Washington finished with a 45-14 edge in shots.
Ovechkin passed up a good shooting opportunity from the right side, instead finding Strome for an easy tap-in to open the scoring in the first. Washington failed to score on a double-minor penalty on Minnesota's Jake Middleton in the second. Then Johansson beat Thompson with wrist shot with 3:13 to play in that period.
That snapped a streak in which the last nine Minnesota goals had come on the power play, and it was just the third 5-on-5 score allowed by Washington on the season.
The Capitals answered quickly with Protas' fourth goal of 2025-26. The 6-foot-6 forward was left open to the left of the goal. With teammate Connor McMichael on the opposite side of the crease, Protas sent the puck toward the net and it slipped past goalie Filip Gustavsson.
Ovechkin's goal in the third came immediately after Strome won a faceoff to him in the offensive zone. Then Strome knocked in a rebound to make it 4-1. Tom Wilson added a power-play goal with 1:57 remaining.
Wild: At Philadelphia on Saturday night.
Capitals: Host Vancouver on Sunday.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Washington Capitals center Dylan Strome (17) celebrates after his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson watches the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals center Aliaksei Protas (21) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.
Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.
The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.
In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.
Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.
Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.
“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.
Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.
Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."
Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.
The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.
“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.
The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.
Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.
The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.
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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.
Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
