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

Ovechkin, 39, scored with 53 seconds left in the first period, taking a centering pass from Martin Fehervary and flicking it past Ivan Fedotov to tie the score at 1-1. It was Ovechkin's 26th goal of the season.

He has now had a goal in four straight games, the 34th time in his career that he has scored in four consecutive games, which ties Mario Lemieux for the most in NHL history. The only other player with at least 30 such streaks is Gretzky (30), according to ESPN Research.

Ovechkin's goal gave him 40 points for the season, making him just the ninth player in NHL history to record 40 points in at least 20 seasons.

The 39-year-old Ovechkin also has 51 career goals against the Flyers in his career, which is tied for his second most against a single opponent (Carolina Hurricanes 51, Winnipeg Jets 56).

"You become a little bit numb to it, but you still, after games, you take a step back and go, this is just incredible how he continues to score at this level, at the age he's at," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "We just enjoy it, and we're glad he's on our side. It's exciting, and it brings a lot of energy to our team, teammates, coaching staff, to watch what he's doing and continuing to find ways to put pucks in the back of the net, and in big moments, big games, big goals, in tight games."

Jakob Chychrun scored the winner for Washington with 7:55 left 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 past eight. Fedotov made 14 saves.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.