Alex Ovechkin continued his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s scoring record with his 32nd career hat trick as the Washington Capitals cruised to a 7-3 victory over the visiting Edmonton Oilers on Sunday afternoon.
Ovechkin netted the 880th, 881st and 882nd goals of his career to close within 13 of passing Gretzky (894) for most in NHL history. It was the 20-year veteran’s 178th multi-goal game.
Dylan Strome had a goal and two assists for Washington, which also got a goal and an assist from both Tom Wilson and Jakob Chychrun. Aliaksei Protas had three assists and Connor McMichael also scored to help the Capitals leapfrog the Winnipeg Jets for the most points in the league (84).
John Carlson added two assists and Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as Washington
extended its point streak to eight games (5-0-3).
Leon Draisaitl scored his league-leading 42nd goal, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist and Jeff Skinner also scored for Edmonton, which dropped its third straight game. Calvin Pickard finished with 27 saves.
The Oilers, playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 6-3 loss at Philadelphia on Saturday, jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 1:42 mark of the first period. Draisaitl opened the scoring on the power play with a one-timer from the right circle.
The Capitals rebounded to take a 2-1 lead later in the period on goals by Wilson and Chychrun, the latter coming on the power play with 24 seconds left.
Ovechkin made it 3-1 at 8:53 of the second period when he tucked a wrist shot from the high slot inside the left post past Pickard’s blocker side.
Washington then broke the game open with two goals in the span of 66 seconds at the end of the period. Ovechkin got the first with his trademark one-timer from the center of the left circle off a Chychrun pass. McMichael followed at the 19:45 mark with his 20th goal, increasing his career high.
Nugent-Hopkins snapped Washington’s streak of five consecutive goals at the 6:35 mark of the third period. Strome answered midway through the period when he shoveled in a rebound of a Protas shot to make it 6-2. Skinner responded with a wraparound goal with 4:55 remaining.
Edmonton pulled Pickard for an extra attacker with 2:56 remaining and Ovechkin completed his hat trick with an empty-netter 18 seconds later.
