Alex Ovechkin scored three goals Sunday night to continue his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s career record, and former Golden Knight Logan Thompson saved 39 shots in his first game back at T-Mobile Arena as the Washington Capitals beat host Vegas 5-2.
Jakob Chychrun and Jakub Vrana also scored goals for the Capitals, and Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas each had two assists.
Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar scored for the Golden Knights, and Ilya Samsonov stopped 20 shots.
Ovechkin now has 866 goals, 29 from surpassing The Great One as the NHL career leader. It was his 31st career hat trick and his 176th career multigoal game, behind only Gretzky’s 189. Ovechkin also extended his record to 315 power-play goals.
HURRICANES 4, BLUES 1: Martin Necas had two goals and two assists as host Carolina beat St. Louis.
Andrei Svechnikov and Eric Robinson also scored for the Hurricanes, who’ve won two straight following a 1-2 road trip. Robinson added two assists. Pyotr Kochetkov made 29 saves.
Necas has a 13-game points streak since he was kept off the scoresheet Oct. 19 at St. Louis.
Jake Neighbours opened the scoring for St. Louis, but the Blues lost for the fifth time in six games (1-4-1). The Blues scored 6:05 into the game on Neighbours’ first goal in 10 games.
RANGERS 2, KRAKEN 0: Alexis Lafreniere and Zac Jones scored as visiting New York beat Seattle.
Jonathan Quick stopped 24 shots for his second straight shutout and 62nd of his career. Quick has won all five of his starts as the backup to Igor Shesterkin.
Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves for the Kraken, who snapped a four-game winning streak.
MAPLE LEAFS’ REAVES SUSPENDED 5 GAMES FOR ILLEGAL CHECK: Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves has been suspended for five games without pay for an illegal check to the head of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.
Reaves also was fined $35,156.25, the NHL’s Department of Safety announced Sunday.
The incident took place at 2:38 of the second period in Toronto’s 4-3 overtime win on Saturday.
Nurse had the puck along the end boards in his own zone when Reaves came in and hit him high.
Nurse’s helmet almost came off and he had blood on his face. Reaves was assessed a match penalty.