WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin recorded his 27th career hat trick and raised his career goal total to 698 during a five-minute stretch of the third period, rallying the Washington Capitals to a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.
Ovechkin, who is closing in on becoming the eighth player in NHL history to reach the 700-goal plateau, moved into the NHL lead with 40 on the season. He singlehandedly overturned a 2-1 deficit inside the final 6:10 of regulation. He has 14 of those 40 goals in his last seven games.
Ovechkin one-timed a feed from T.J. Oshie to tie the game at 2-all . Seventy seconds later, he rebounded his own miss off goaltender Jonathan Quick’s pads and put Washington in front.
He added an empty-netter with 1:46 to play, moving within 10 goals of Mike Gartner for seventh on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
John Carlson added his 14th goal and 50th and 51st assists for Washington, which rebounded after opening a four-game homestand with a loss to Pittsburgh. Braden Holtby made 29 saves in the win.
Jeff Carter scored his 15th and 16th goals for the Kings.
ISLANDERS 4, STARS 3, OT
NEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Beauvillier scored his second goal of the game 2:52 into overtime and the Islanders rallied to beat Dallas.
Mathew Barzal and Derick Brassard also scored for the Islanders, who are 2-0-2 in their last four games. Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves to earn his 16th career win against the Stars.
John Klingberg, Denis Gurianov and Jason Dickinson scored for the Stars. Ben Bishop made 37 saves.
BLUE JACKETS 1, PANTHERS 0
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Zach Werenski scored 1:54 into overtime and Columbus extended its points streak to nine games with a win over Florida.
Werenski picked up the puck off the right boards, circled around to the bottom of the circle and beat former teammate Sergei Bobrovski, who had made 45 saves to that point.
Both teams had some good looks, especially late in the game, but both goalies were outstanding.
Elvis Merzlikins had 32 saves in picking up his fourth shutout of the season. Columbus has won eight of nine and hasn’t lost in regulation since Jan. 9, a streak of 8-0-1.
LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos tipped in his 24th goal of the season in the third period and led Tampa Bay Lightning over Vegas.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves and extended his streak of consecutive games without a regulation loss to 16 games, matching the franchise record set by Nikolai Khabibulin in 2002-03.
Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli also scored, and Nikita Kucherov had two assists as Tampa Bay won its seventh consecutive home game. Alex Killorn added an empty net goal with 44.7 seconds remaining.
Paul Stastny and William Carrier scored for Vegas, which lost for just the second time in regulation in six games under new head coach Peter DeBoer. Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 13 saves.
AVALANCHE 6, SABRES 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Andre Burakovsky had a goal and three assists for a career-best four points in Colorado’s rout of spiraling Buffalo.
Samuel Girard sparked the rout with the opening goal in a game the Avalanche scored six times on their first 14 shots.
Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and two assists, while Nikita Zadorov, Nazem Kadri and Mikko Rantanen also scored. Burakovsky’s goal was his 17th to match a career high, and he extended his point streak to five games.
Philipp Grubauer stopped 23 shots in helping Colorado improve to 4-1-2 in its past seven.
Buffalo’s Sam Reinhart deflected in Jake McCabe’s point shot in the final second of the first period.
BRUINS 4, CANUCKS 0
BOSTON (AP) — Charlie Coyle had a goal and an assist, Tuukka Rask stopped 25 shots for his third shutout this season and Boston extended its winning streak to four games.
Brad Marchand, David Krejci and Karson Kuhlman also scored. Charlie McAvoy had two assists as Boston won for the fifth time in six games.
Jacob Markstrom made 38 saves for Vancouver.
The Canucks lost in regulation for the first time since Jan. 14, when they were shut out at Winnipeg 4-0. Vancouver had surged since then, winning five straight before a 4-3 shootout loss at Carolina on Sunday.
CANADIENS 5, DEVILS 4, SO
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Ilya Kovalchuk scored the only shootout goal and Montreal rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat New Jersey.
Montreal’s Charlie Lindgren had 20 saves filling for an ill Carey Price, and easily handled muffed chances by Nikita Gusev, Kyle Palmieri and Jack Hughes in the shootout.
Joel Armia, Nate Thompson, Nick Cousins and Christian Folin scored in regulation for the Canadiens.
Palmieri scored two-power-play goals for New Jersey, including the game-tying tally with 20 seconds left in regulation.
Miles Wood and Jesper Bratt also scored for the Devils. Louis Domingue had 32 saves for New Jersey, which has played in four straight overtime games since the All Star break.
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The Associated Press
