Alex Ovechkin registered a hat trick and had an assist as the Washington Capitals downed the Florida Panthers, 4-3, on Saturday.
Mike Ribeiro added a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who remained tied with the Jets for first place in the Southeast Division. Braden Holtby had 27 saves in the win.
Jacob Markstrom had 27 saves but allowed all four goals for the Panthers, who scored all of their goals in the third period. Tomas Kopecky had a pair of goals and Peter Mueller lit the lamp once in the setback.
Ovechkin scored his first goal on the power play with 4:15 left in the first. Ribiero took a pass on the goal line and quickly dished it to Ovechkin, who easily put it in the net for an early 1-0 lead.
Mike Green's slap shot hit off the post, but Ribeiro was there to clean up the miss 43 seconds into the middle session.
Ovechkin used an incredible play to get past a Panthers defender and went top shelf to beat Markstrom not even two minutes later. Ovechkin flipped the puck up ice on the right side then burst past the left side of the defender and beat him to the puck. He then turned and fired off the shot for a 3-0 lead.
Ovechkin added a power-play goal for the hat trick with 5:38 left to make it 4-0.
Kopecky and Mueller added goals less than two minutes apart for the Panthers in the third, cutting the gap to 4-2. Kopecky added a tip-in with 33 seconds left to account for the final margin.
Game Notes
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