Capitals 4, Blues 1: Nicklas Backstrom scored a pair of goals as visiting Washington kept its slim playoffs hopes alive and handed St. Louis its season-high third straight defeat.

Captain Alex Ovechkin notched his league-leading 50 goals and added a pair of assists to keep the Capitals four points behind Columbus for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with three games to play. Mikhail Grabovski also tallied and Braden Holtby turned aside 28 shots as Washington earned its first regulation victory since March 18.

Maxim Lapierre scored the lone goal for the slumping Blues, who have scored only seven times in their last six games and remain one point ahead of Anaheim for the top seed in the West. Ryan Miller (18 saves) fell to 10-5-1 since joining the Blues.

The Blues tied it 2:39 into the second period when Lapierre knocked home a rebound, but the Capitals went ahead to stay just over six minutes later when Grabovski blasted a slap shot past Miller from the left circle. Backstrom padded the lead with 70 seconds left in the session, accepting a pass from Ovechkin and snapping a wrister by Miller.

Washington took a commanding edge when Ovechkin sent a circle-to-circle pass to Backstrom, who buried another wicked wrist shot to make it 4-1. Ovechkin opened the scoring with 2:06 left in the opening period with a trademark one-timer from the left circle on the power play.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Ovechkin reached 50 goals for the fifth time in his career, becoming the 11th player in history to hit that milestone at least five times. ... Blues LW Alexander Steen, who leads the team with 33 goals, returned to the lineup tonight after missing the past three games with an upper-body injury. ... Capitals G Jaroslav Halak, who opened the season as St. Louis' No. 1 goaltender before subsequent trades to Buffalo and Washington, sat in favor of Holtby after telling coach Adam Oates he did not feel "comfortable" facing his former team. ... St. Louis captain David Backes is considered day-to-day after suffering a lower-body injury.