Alex Ovechkin found himself alone in the slot early in the third period Friday. Evgeny Kuznetsov put the puck on his stick from behind the net, and Ovechkin hammered it home past goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for what wound up the deciding goal in the Washington Capitals’ 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers. The crowd at Capital One Arena erupted, and hats rained down in honor of Ovechkin’s first hat trick of the season.
To cap off the celebration, Ovechkin skated over to fist bump with and wave to his 3-year-old son, Sergei, through the glass.
“As a parent, it is always kind of fun to see your kid," Ovechkin said. " ... When they watch you playing, it is something special, so it’s a cool moment.”
The Capitals’ captain now has 18 goals and 18 assists in 21 games this season. He has 748 career goals, leaving him 18 behind Jaromir Jagr for third place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list. The 36-year-old has catapulted himself into the Hart Trophy conversation again and has six goals and four assists in his past four games.
“At the end of the day, O is delivering a lot of offense with the way he’s playing the game,” Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Tonight was a perfect example. It was a big game, and we needed big guys to step up. He was really, really good.”
With Ovechkin leading the way, Washington improved to 13-3-5 and tied the Panthers (14-3-3) and the Carolina Hurricanes with 31 points, the most in the NHL. The Capitals play the Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., on Sunday before traveling to Florida to face the Panthers again Tuesday.
“These are great opportunities for us to try and play teams that are at the top or in our division to try and continue,” Laviolette said. ”Like I’ve always said, move the train down the tracks and keep it going forward.”
Ovechkin’s third goal came 4:02 into the third period to give the Capitals a 4-2 lead. The Panthers cut the lead to one with Carter Verhaeghe’s goal at 5:36 of the third.
Ovechkin’s first two goals came 56 seconds apart against two Florida goaltenders — the first was against Bobrovsky, and the second was against Spencer Knight — in the second period. Washington, in fact, scored three times in a 2:12 span to take a 3-1 lead in the middle frame. Sam Rienhart scored off the rush with 13:11 remaining in the second to cut the Capitals’ lead to 3-2.
The Panthers opened the scoring off a Capitals turnover at the blue line with 32 seconds left in the first. Jonathan Huberdeau picked up the puck and scored. Tom Wilson tied the game at 1 with a shorthanded goal on a two-on-one rush 1:34 into the second period. It was the Capitals’ fourth shorthanded goal of the season.
Ilya Samsonov finished the game with 19 saves.
Here is what to know from Friday’s win:
Ovechkin shakes it off
Ovechkin left the game at 4:42 of the first period after he took a puck to the face. He blocked a point shot from Radko Gudas, and the puck hit Ovechkin’s stick before it deflected up. He returned less than four minutes later, and his game got better from there.
“Yeah, it kind of was a wake-up call,” said Ovechkin, who got stitches above his mouth.
With the hat trick, Ovechkin has scored a power-play and even-strength goal in the same regular season game 79 times, the most in NHL history.
Ovechkin’s three points Friday moved him ahead of Guy Lafleur (1,353) and Brendan Shanahan (1,354) and into 26th in NHL history with 1,356.
Aliaksei Protas assisted on both of Ovechkin’s second-period goals for his first career multi-point game.
”When the guys come from the AHL, they have to step up to be the best out there to help the team get better and better every game,” Protas said. “So that’s our job right now.”
Panthers play goalie roulette
Bobrovsky appeared to get hurt early in Friday’s loss.
He was clipped up high by Wilson as he passed the net, and the Panthers goalie appeared to be briefly shaken up. Bobrovsky stayed in the game until Ovechkin scored his first goal of the night at 2:50 of the second, which gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead.
Knight replaced Bobrovsky, and Ovechkin promptly scored against Knight 56 seconds later. Bobrovsky then reentered the game but soon was pulled again. Bobrovsky returned a second time with 2:48 left in the second period. The Panthers said after the game Bobrovsky was evaluated and later cleared by a Capitals team doctor after he left the game the first time. His second exit was more vague, but Florida said it was told Bobrovsky was not looked at for a long enough period of time.
Schultz out, Cholowski in
The Capitals had the same six defenseman in the lineup in the first 20 games. That changed Friday when Justin Schultz was unavailable because of an upper-body injury. Schultz was hurt in the Capitals’ 6-3 win over Montreal on Wednesday. Dennis Cholowski took Schultz’s spot on the third defensive pairing, next to Trevor van Riemsdyk.
It was Cholowski’s second game with the Capitals this season. He played 9:57 Sunday in Seattle after Conor Sheary was a late scratch. Washington had to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead of its typical 12 and six.
Washington’s defense has been a bright spot this season. Van Riemsdyk gave credit to the “simple” play of the defense.
“We’ve done a good job of being consistent night in and night out,” van Riemsdyk said. “Doing our best to keep the puck out of our own end, kind of shutting it down and breaking it out and being simple.”
Fehervary continues to impress
It took rookie defenseman Martin Fehervary a remarkable 21 games to get assessed a penalty this season. He was called for interference with 9:59 left in the first.
He had three minor penalties in six NHL games in the 2019-20 season. The defenseman had been averaging 18:51 a game entering Friday. He has two goals and three assists playing alongside John Carlson on the Capitals’ top defensive pairing.
He appeared to be talking extensively with a Capitals trainer late in the second period on the bench, but he did not head to the locker room, and he played normal minutes the rest of the night.
