The Washington Capitals will try to complete a sweep of their three-game road trip when they play the Utah Hockey Club on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
After giving up a two-goal lead in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, the Capitals headed west and won against the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights.
Utah, on the other hand, is 1-1-0 in its first two games of a three-game homestand, after losing 4-2 to the Golden Knights on Friday.
On Sunday, Capitals’ captain Alex Ovechkin scored his 31st career hat trick in a 5-2 win over Vegas. Jakob Chychrun and Jakub Vrana also scored for Washington, and goalie Logan Thompson made 40 saves, including 25 in the third period, against his former team.
“Just happy for him and proud of him to beat his former team and to play the way he did here tonight and grind through that and battle and arguably be the difference in the second half of that game,” said Capitals coach Spencer Carbery about Thompson.
After struggling offensively last season, the Capitals have scored four or more goals in 10 of their first 17 games this season. They have scored 72 goals, with part of their success coming from better play in transition.
“I think that’s one of the areas of our game that’s really grown this year,” Carbery said. “We’re a very dangerous team off the rush. I feel like we’re picking our spots of when we can generate an entry and find the second wave, the Chychrun goal.”
Ovechkin, a three-time Hart Trophy winner, is tied for the NHL lead with 13 goals. He is now just 29 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 goals.
Ovechkin’s linemate Dylan Strome assisted on two goals in the win, marking his seventh multi-assist game of the season. He has 21 assists and is on track to break his career-high of 42 assists from the 2022-23 season.
Utah started strong against Vegas, taking a 2-0 lead, but the Golden Knights came back with a power-play goal in the second period and scored twice more with the man advantage in the third period.
“It’s frustrating when you had a great start to the game, (then a) couple mistakes in the second,” said Utah’s Clayton Keller. “This one hurts. We were right there. Everyone was feeling good and we just made a couple mistakes and it cost us.”
Vegas tied the game in the third period, took a 3-2 lead with 1:18 left, and added an empty-net goal.
Logan Cooley and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev each scored for Utah, and goalie Karel Vejmelka made 25 saves. Utah finished the game with a season-high 34 shots on goal.
“We could not get the big goal,” said Utah coach Andre Tourigny. “The killer goal would have probably changed everything. But we could not separate ourselves.”
Sergachev has scored in each of his last four games at Delta Center. He has 12 points (four goals, eight assists), tied for third on the team.
Utah has a 4-3-1 record at home and a 4-2-0 record against Eastern Conference teams this season.
