Alex Ovechkin scored his 31st career hat trick, and Logan Thompson made 40 saves to help the Washington Capitals beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-2 on Sunday night in Las Vegas.
Ovechkin now has 864 career goals, putting him 29 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 goals. His hat trick also marked his 176th multi-goal game, 13 behind Gretzky’s record. With this performance, Ovechkin moved into a tie for the league lead in goals (13) with Sam Reinhart of Florida and Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton.
Jakob Chychrun and Jakub Vrana also scored for Washington, while Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas each had two assists. This win was the Capitals’ first regular-season victory at T-Mobile Arena in seven tries, and it pushed their record to 6-0-0 against teams from the Western Conference.
For Vegas, Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar each scored, but the Golden Knights’ two-game winning streak ended. Vegas goalie Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves in the loss.
Hurricanes 4, Blues 1
Martin Necas scored two goals and had two assists to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Necas has now extended his point streak to 13 games, with 10 goals and 17 assists during that time. Eric Robinson also had a goal and two assists, and Andrei Svechnikov scored for the Hurricanes, who have won 11 of their last 13 games. Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 29 saves to earn his ninth win in 11 starts.
Jake Neighbours scored the only goal for St. Louis, while goalie Joel Hofer made 20 saves. The Blues are now 1-4-1 in their last six games.
Rangers 2, Kraken 0
Jonathan Quick made 24 saves to earn his second straight shutout and the 62nd of his career as the New York Rangers defeated the Seattle Kraken 2-0.
Alexis Lafreniere and Zac Jones scored for the Rangers, who won their second game in a row. New York improved to 10-0-0 this season when scoring first. Quick, who is in his 18th NHL season, has won all four of his starts so far this year.
Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 23 shots. The Kraken had their four-game winning streak snapped. Grubauer was returning to action after missing four games due to an undisclosed injury from an “unfortunate accident” at home, as explained by coach Dan Bylsma.
Predators 5, Canucks 3
Steven Stamkos scored two goals, and Zachary L’Heureux scored his first career goal as the Nashville Predators defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-3.
Roman Josi had a goal and an assist, Gustav Nyquist scored, and Filip Forsberg added two assists for the Predators, who ended a three-game losing streak. Goaltender Juuse Saros made 24 saves in the win.
For Vancouver, Aatu Raty, Elias Pettersson, and Kiefer Sherwood scored. The Canucks have only three wins in their last 10 home games. Danton Heinen had two assists, and goalie Kevin Lankinen, who joined the Canucks this season after two years with the Predators, stopped 16 shots in the loss.
