WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his 880th, 881st and 882nd career goals to record a hat trick and move 13 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record and give the Washington Capitals a 7-3 victory over Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday.
Ovechkin beat Calvin Pickard clean with a wrist shot just before the midway mark of the second period off a pass from linemate Dylan Strome for his first of the game. He got his second on the power play 10 minutes later and put the puck into an empty net with 2:38 left for his third.
Pickard became the 181st goaltender he has scored on, already the most of any player after Ovechkin broke Jaromir Jagr’s mark earlier last month. With his 134th game-winning goal, he also tied Jagr for the most in NHL history.
Tom Wilson, Jakob Chychrun, Connor McMichael and Strome also scored and Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves for the league-leading Capitals, who won back-to-back matinees out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break. They outscored the Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins 15-6.
The Oilers lost their third in a row dating to before the break, despite Leon Draisaitl scoring his league-leading 42nd goal this season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner scored in the third, long after the game got out of hand, and Pickard allowed six goals on 32 shots.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Sunday:
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RANGERS 5 PENGUINS 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Adam Fox scored the go-ahead goal at 11:26 of the third period, J.T. Miller had two goals and New York rallied to beat Pittsburgh 5-3.
Will Cuylle scored on the power play and Jimmy Vesey added his 100th NHL goal for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin made 30 saves. Miller, a Pittsburgh native, scored in the first period and added a late empty-net goal.
Ryan Shea scored two third-period goals, the first two of the season for the defenceman, to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.
Vesey tied it for the Rangers 4:21 into the third. Fox, who has a six-game points streak, put New York ahead just over seven minutes later.
Evgeni Malkin had Pittsburgh’s other goal. Sidney Crosby had an assist and became the ninth player in NHL history with 17 or more 60-point seasons. Erik Karlsson had an assist to continue his seven-game point streak. Joel Blomqvist stopped 11 shots.
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DEVILS 5 PREDATORS 0
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nico Daws made 29 saves to record his first NHL shutout as New Jersey defeated Nashville 5-0.
Dougie Hamilton had a goal and an assist, Ondrej Palat, Seamus Casey, Stefan Noesen and Tomas Tatar also scored for the Devils, winners of two of three. Nico Hischier had three assists and Luke Hughes and Jesper Bratt each had two.
Justus Annunen made 31 saves for Nashville, which had its two-game winning streak snapped.
Palat scored the game’s first goal with 6:15 remaining in the opening period from the low slot after a scramble in front.
Hamilton doubled the New Jersey lead at 9:14 of the second, tucking a shot from the right side just underneath the crossbar.
Daws’ toughest save came late in the first period when he denied Nashville’s Filip Forsberg on a breakaway. He also made five saves on a late third period Nashville power play.
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LIGHTNING 4 KRAKEN 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves and Tampa Bay extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-1 victory against Seattle.
Nikita Kucherov, Luke Glendening and Nick Paul scored in the third period and Brandon Hagel added his third short-handed goal of the season as the Lightning improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven games.
Shane Wright scored, and Ales Stezka finished with 19 saves in his NHL debut for Seattle.
After a scoreless first period, Hagel gave the Lightning the lead when he raced up ice to fend off Oliver Bjorkstrand and put a spinning backhander on goal for his league-leading seventh short-handed score of the season at 9:27 of the second period.
Kucherov and Glendening scored 1:43 apart in the third period to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead. Wright tipped in a shot by Brandon Montour to cut it 3-1 at 15:24. Paul added an empty-net goal.
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BLUES 3 AVALANCHE 1
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Colton Parayko had the go-ahead score in St. Louis’s three-goal second period, Jordan Binnington made 27 saves and the Blues topped Colorado.
Dylan Holloway and Brayden Schenn also scored, and Jordan Kyrou and Justin Faulk each added two assists for St. Louis.
Devon Toews scored the lone goal for Colorado. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 22 shots.
With the Blues trailing 1-0, Schenn tied it at 10:45 of the second period. A slap shot from the top of the slot by Kyrou was blocked and the puck went to Schenn, who scored from the left circle.
Parayko tapped in a loose puck in front of the net at 14.13 to put the Blues ahead.
Holloway made it 3-1 when he redirected the puck at 19:50.
Toews scored at 7:49 of the first for Colorado. Cale Makar flipped a wrist shot from just inside the blue line and Towes deflected it for the score. Makar has seven goals and five assists over his last 11 games.
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RED WINGS 5 DUCKS 4 (OT)
DETROIT (AP) — Patrick Kane scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway with a minute left in overtime and Detroit beat Anaheim to end their four-game winning streak.
Marco Kasper, Alex DeBrincat and Kane scored during the first 5:06 of the game, the fastest any team has scored three goals this season. J.T. Compher added a power-play goal for Detroit, which squandered a late two-goal lead and improved to 8-1-1 in its last 10 games. Alex Lyon made 24 saves.
The Red Wings bounced back from a 4-3 overtime loss to Minnesota on Saturday in which they gave away a two-goal lead in the third period.
Anaheim scored twice in the final 2:16 after pulling goaltender Lukas Dostal for an extra skater.
Cutter Gauthier scored twice, including the tying goal with 53 seconds left. Ryan Strome and Owen Zellweger also scored for the Ducks. Dostal made 31 saves.
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MAPLE LEAFS 5 BLACKHAWKS 2
CHICAGO (AP) — Nicholas Robertson scored twice in the second period as Toronto beat Chicago 5-2.
Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev each had a goal and an assist as Toronto won for the second night in its return from the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Max Domi had two assists and Joseph Woll made 25 saves.
Teuvo Teravainen and Phillipp Kurashev scored for Chicago, which lost 5-1 at Columbus on Saturday. Tyler Bertuzzi had two assists.
Tanev’s second goal of the season made it 4-2 with 7:53 left, and Pontus Holmberg added an empty-netter with 1:32 remaining.
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STARS 4 ISLANDERS 3
NEW YORK (AP) — Jason Robertson’s third career hat trick lifted Dallas past New York 4-3 for their third straight victory.
Jake Oettinger finished with 35 saves and Sam Steel also scored for Dallas, which held on after a late charge by the Islanders.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau appeared to tie it for New York in the closing minutes, but the referee ruled Pierre Engvall interfered with Oettinger and the goal was disallowed.
Engvall, Kyle Palmieri and Anthony Duclair scored for New York and Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves, but the Islanders fell in their first game following the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Dallas defenceman Lian Bischel left late in the second period and didn’t return after taking a check to the head from the Islanders’ Casey Cizikas.
Palmieri tied it at 2 at 8:55 of the second, but Robertson scored two power-play goals to complete the hat trick and give the Stars a 4-2 edge.
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UTAH 2 CANUCKS 1
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Dylan Guenther scored a tiebreaking power-play goal with just under six minutes remaining in the third period and Utah beat Vancouver 2-1.
Logan Cooley, back in the lineup after missing the last seven games due to a lower-body injury, also scored for Utah, which won for the second time in three games. Clayton Keller had two assists, and John Marino and Nick Schmaltz each had one. Utah’s Karel Vejmelka finished with 14 saves.
Jake DeBrusk scored for Vancouver. Arturs Silos had 30 saves. Elias Pettersson and Pius Suter assisted on DeBrusk’s power-play goal at 1:43 of the second period that opened the scoring.
Cooley answered at 3:51 to tie the game at 1-1. Guenther tipped in a pass from Schmaltz for the winner.
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FLAMES 3 SHARKS 2
CALGARY, Alta. (AP) — Joel Hanley scored his first goal of the season at 13:26 of the third period to lead Calgary to a 3-2 victory over San Jose.
Nazem Kadri and Kevin Rooney also had goals for the Flames, who snapped a three-game winless skid and moved to within one point of Vancouver for the second wild-card playoff berth in the Western Conference.
Rookie Dustin Wolf made 27 saves for his 20th victory after going winless in his previous four starts. He improved to 20-11-3.
Macklin Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli scored for San Jose, which is winless in its last five and has dropped six straight on the road. Alexander Georgiev made 33 saves, but lost his sixth straight and has dropped 12 of his last 13 starts.
With the game tied at 1, Rooney gave Calgary the lead with his first goal and point since Dec. 10 at 3:35 of the second.
Toffoli tied it 1:54 into the third, swatting in his own rebound for his team-leading 21st goal.
The Associated Press
