CHICAGO (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored three times to become the third NHL player with 800 career goals, and the streaking Washington Capitals beat the lowly Chicago Blackhawks 7-3 on Tuesday night.
Nic Dowd, Anthony Mantha, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dmitry Orlov also scored as Washington earned its fifth straight win. Conor Sheary had two assists, and Charlie Lindgren made 26 stops.
The Capitals went 6-2-1 during a nine-game stretch that had only one home date.
Chicago dropped to 1-11-1 in its last 13 games. It has scored just four goals during a four-game slide.
Ovechkin scored on his first two shots, beating Petr Mrazek 24 seconds into the game before stuffing one home on a power play with 11:46 left in the first period. The 37-year-old winger then completed his 29th career hat trick when he sent a rebound over a sprawled Mrazek 6:34 into the third.
Jonathan Toews, Max Domi and Tyler Johnson scored for Chicago, and Mrazek finished with 23 saves.
PANTHERS 4, BLUE JACKETS 0
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots in his first shutout of the season in Florida's win over Columbus.
The Panthers got goals from Brandon Montour, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart as they halted a two-game skid.
Bobrovsky had struggled in November and lost his starting job to Spencer Knight late last month in a loss to the Blue Jackets. But with Knight out with illness, Bobrovsky has played well in his past four starts, allowing one goal or fewer in two of them.
Elvis Merzlikins made 22 saves for Columbus, which had won its past two games.
SABRES 6, KINGS 0
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Tage Thompson scored two third-period power-play goals, and Craig Anderson stopped 40 shots as Buffalo beat Los Angeles.
Victor Olofsson and JJ Peterka scored 13 seconds apart midway through the final frame, and Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs also scored during a six-goal third-period outburst. Dylan Cozens had three assists for the Sabres.
Pheonix Copley stopped 25 shots for the Kings. Copley allowed six goals on 16 shots in the final frame.
Thompson’s two goals pushed his total to 23 on the season. He entered the day third in the NHL scoring race.
HURRICANES 1, RED WINGS 0
DETROIT (AP) — Brady Skjei scored the only goal and Pyotr Kochetkov made 27 saves in Carolina's win over Detroit.
Carolina improved to 5-0-1 on its current road swing, tying a record for most wins and setting a record for points on the road.
Ville Husso made 26 saves for the Red Wings, who fell to 0-2 when wearing their Reverse Retro jerseys.
BRUINS 4, ISLANDERS 3, SO
BOSTON (AP) — Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak each scored in a shootout to give Boston the win over New York.
DeBrusk also had two goals and an assist in regulation, and Linus Ullmark stopped 23 shots for Boston, improving his record to 17-1. The Bruins are 15-0-1 at TD Garden, including the NHL-record 14 straight victories to open a season at home that was halted last week.
Casey Cizikas, Josh Bailey and Noah Dobson each had a goal for the Islanders, and Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves before the shootout.
STARS 4, DEVILS 1
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Roope Hintz scored the go-ahead goal with three seconds left in the second period and backup Scott Wedgewood made 35 saves against his former team as Dallas beat New Jersey, sending the Devils to their third straight loss.
With both teams playing their second game in two nights, Hintz snapped a 1-all tie with his 13th goal of the season off a scrum in the crease in front of Devils netminder Akira Schmid.
Ty Dellandrea, Esa Lindell and Mason Marchment also scored for Dallas. Lindell and Marchment both scored into an empty net.
Miles Wood had the lone goal for New Jersey.
LIGHTNING 6, KRAKEN 2
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Corey Perry, Brayden Point and Ross Colton scored 3:23 apart in the second period, Nikita Kucherov had three assists to lead Tampa Bay over Seattle.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and Ian Cole, Erik Cernak and Steven Stamkos had the other Lightning goals. Tampa Bay has won all three games against the second-year Kraken, outscoring them 13-3.
Stamkos extended his point streak to 14 games (nine goals, 12 assists) with his third-period goal. He is three away from becoming the 47th NHL player to reach 500 goals.
Jared McCann and Ryan Donato scored for the Kraken.
Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals on 20 shots before being replaced by Martin Jones in the second.
MAPLE LEAFS 7, DUCKS 0
TORONTO (AP) — Mitch Marner had two assists to extend his point streak to 23 games and Ilya Samsonov made 28 saves for his second straight shutout as Toronto thumped last-place Anaheim.
Alexander Kerfoot scored twice for Toronto, while John Tavares and Pierre Engvall each had a goal and an assist.
Michael Bunting, TJ Brodie and Joey Anderson provided the rest of the offense.
Conor Timmins registered a trio of assists for the first three-point performance of his career. Rasmus Sandin had two assists and Pontus Holmberg had three.
John Gibson allowed two goals on 27 shots for last-place Anaheim before being replaced in the second period by Lukas Dostal.
OILERS 6, PREDATORS 3
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Zach Hyman had a hat trick, Leon Draisaitl scored twice and added three assists and Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to lift Edmonton over Nashville.
Jack Campbell made 29 saves for Edmonton. Tyson Barrie had a pair of assists.
Cody Glass, Ryan Johansen and Dante Fabbro scored and Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves for Nashville, losers of four straight. Roman Josi had two assists.
McDavid has points in 10-straight games, scoring 10 goals and adding 14 assists over the course of the streak. He has three four-point games in his last six.
Hyman completed his first career hat trick with an empty-net goal with 2:37 remaining in the third.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6, JETS 5
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Jonathan Marchessault’s second power-play goal late in the third period broke a tie and helped lift Vegas to victory over the Jets.
The final minutes of the game were action packed. William Karlsson added an empty-net strike for Vegas with 1:24 left and Jets center Mark Scheifele completed a hat trick with two seconds left.
Golden Knights’ captain Mark Stone scored twice, while Daniil Miromanov put away his first NHL goal and contributed a pair of assists. Chandler Stephenson registered four helpers.
Morgan Barron and Sam Gagner each had a goal for the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves.
Adin Hill stopped 29 shots for the Golden Knights.
AVALANCHE 3, FLYERS 2
DENVER (AP) — Artturi Lehkonen had a short-handed goal and an assist, Pavel Francouz stopped 26 shots and a banged-up Colorado held off Philadelphia.
Devon Toews and J.T. Compher also scored for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month.
Cam York and James van Riemsdyk had goals for a Flyers team that dropped to 0-1-2 on their current road trip. Sandstrom made 22 saves in his first appearance since Nov. 26.
Van Riemsdyk scored with 3:38 remaining to make things interesting down the stretch. The Flyers had several chances to tie it up but couldn’t get anything past Francouz.
SHARKS 3, COYOTES 2
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Nick Bonino scored for the fourth straight game, James Reimer won in his return from injury and San Jose defeated Arizona.
Tomas Hertl and Bonino scored in a span of 1:02 early in the first period to set the tone and Nico Sturm added a goal in the second.
Reimer returned from a lower-body injury that had sidelined him since Nov. 25 and made 19 saves.
Lawson Crouse and Nick Bjugstad scored for the Coyotes and Karel Vejmelka stopped 30 shots.
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The Associated Press
