WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th NHL hat trick for the Washington Capitals in a 9-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Capital One Arena on Saturday.
Ovechkin has 26 goals this season, including six in his past four games, and 806 in his NHL career.
“Great start by us,” Ovechkin said. “I think we created as many chances as we can.”
Marcus Johansson and Erik Gustafsson each had a goal and two assists for the Capitals (21-13-5), who are 11-1-1 in their past 13 games. Yevgeny Kuznetsov had three assists, and Charlie Lindgren made 31 saves
“We all knew we had to have a bounce-back game after the last game (4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday),” Lindgren said. “I don’t think anyone was really happy with it [that] game. I thought we played pretty well tonight. Happy with two points.”
Video: MTL@WSH: Ovechkin nets his 30th career hat trick
Cole Caufield scored two goals for the Canadiens (15-19-3), who have lost five straight (0-4-1) and have been outscored 16-4 in their past two games. Jake Allen Allowed nine goals on 40 shots.
“You’ve got to play a full 60 minutes. We’re playing five, 10 and then it slips away,” Caufield said. “So obviously again a learning experience, but you can look at these teams and learn from them and how they do play a full 60. And when they slip, they always find their game, so it’s something we can look to build on, and hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Gustafsson gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead 32 seconds into the first period when he worked a give-and-go with Kuznetsov and scored from the left face-off circle.
“He made a great pass there, Kuznetsov, so it was an open net for me, but it’s fun, you know? It’s fun to play right now,” said Gustafsson, who has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in a seven-game point streak. “Today we had a great game.”
Garnet Hathaway made it 2-0 at 4:32, redirecting an Aliaksei Protas Shot past Allen.
Caufield pulled the Canadiens to within 2-1 at 4:02 of the second period, scoring on a one-timer from the left face-off circle during a 4-on-3 power play. It was his 20th goal of the season.
Video: MTL@WSH: Gustafsson puts home a nice passing play
Nic Dowd made it 3-1 when he knocked in the rebound of a Protas shot at 8:31. Ovechkin then scored 35 seconds later to push the lead to 4-1, converting a one-timer at the top of the left face-off circle at 4-on-4.
“I think we played well from the start,” Johansson said. “I think once we got up 2-0, we kind of let off a little bit and it got a little bit sloppy for a bit, then we picked it right back up again after a bit.”
Caufield cut it to 4-2 at 12:39 when he stole the puck from a Washington forward Lars Eller and scored on a breakaway.
Dylan Strome increased the lead to 5-2 at 19:21 on a power play. He knocked the loose puck past Allen after his pass attempt across the slot to Ovechkin was blocked.
“I thought the second half of the first, I thought we were coming, and the second period I thought it was a really good period for us,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And you lose the period, it’s a little deflating.”
Ovechkin made it 6-2 at 1:22 of the third period, scoring on a one-timer from the left face-off circle during a power play, and Johansson scored off a pass from Kuznetsov at 5:31 to make it 7- 2.
Anthony Mantha scored on a breakaway at 15:43 to extend the lead to 8-2 before Ovechkin completed his hat trick at 16:35 for the 9-2 final.
“It’s not fun to go through, but we have to find solutions, and that’s our challenge and that’s what we’re tasked with right now, and I think as a group we’re going to find out who we can count on,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “You hope that’s everyone, you believe that’s everyone, and we’re going to have to find a way to get through this together.”
NOTES: Ovechkin is the sixth player in NHL history with at least 30 regular-season hat tricks, joining Wayne Gretzky (50), Mario Lemieux (40), Mike Bossy (39), Brett Hull (33) and Phil Esposito (32). … Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary had an assist and was plus-1 in 18:00 of ice time in his return after missing 12 games due to an upper-body injury. … Caufield (37 games) is the first Canadiens player to score 20 goals in 37 or fewer games since Martin Rucinsky (37) and Brian Savage (37) each did so in 1995-96.
.