NHL Capsules

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alex Ovechkin scored three times in the second period for his 14th career hat trick, and the Washington Capitals beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Thursday night.

Ovechkin, who leads the league with 34 goals, has 13 in his past 13 games. Nicklas Backstrom had three assists and Jason Chimera added an empty-netter for Washington, which improved to a league-best 20-5-2 on the road.

Braden Holtby made 33 saves for the Capitals, who won their fifth consecutive game and became the first team to reach 40 victories this season.

Charlie Coyle, Ryan Suter and Mikael Granlund scored for the Wild, but Minnesota lost for the 12th time in its past 13 games (1-10-2). Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for the Wild, who have lost seven in a row at home (0-4-3).

STARS 4, BLACKHAWKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Patrick Eaves scored three of Dallas' four goals in the first period, and the Stars avenged an ugly home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Eaves' second career hat trick helped Dallas to its fifth win in six games and moved the Stars within one of the Blackhawks for the most points in the Western Conference. Dallas' lone loss during the strong stretch was a 5-1 rout for visiting Chicago on Saturday night.

John Klingberg added a goal and an assist for Dallas.

Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks, who played without forward Artemi Panarin for the second straight game due to an illness.

ISLANDERS 5, KINGS 2

NEW YORK (AP) — John Tavares had a goal and an assist, Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots and the New York Islanders scored three times in the first 14 minutes and beat Los Angeles.

Johnny Boychuk, Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee all scored in the first period and Travis Hamonic added an empty-netter in the third to help the Islanders win their third straight overall and third in a row at home. New York improved to 15-4-2 against Western Conference teams.

Kyle Clifford and Milan Lucic scored, and Jhonas Enroth finished with 25 saves for the Pacific Division-leading Kings, who had won three straight on the road.

FLYERS 5, SABRES 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — R.J. Umberger snapped a 50-game scoreless drought and Wayne Simmonds got his 20th goal of the season to help the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres to end a three-game skid.

Brayden Schenn, Michael Raffl and Nick Cousins also scored for Philadelphia.

Jamie McGinn scored for Buffalo, and the Sabres lost their fourth in a row while wrapping up a three-game season series against the Flyers with their first loss.

BLUE JACKETS 4, DUCKS 3, SO

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Alexander Wennberg and Cam Atkinson each scored in the shootout and Joonas Korpisalo stopped shots by Corey Perry and Jakob Silfverberg to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

Columbus' Brandon Dubinsky tucked a shot inside the left goal post on the power play to make it 3-all with 5:03 left in the third, eventually forcing overtime. Nine minutes before Dubinsky's equalizer, Brandon Saad scored his team-leading 20th goal on a rebound to get his team within a goal after Ryan Garbutt slipped a shot from a tight angle by Columbus' Joonas Korpisalo at 1:45 of the third.

William Karlsson also scored for Columbus, while David Perron and Mike Santorelli had goals for Anaheim.

AVALANCHE 4, SENATORS 3

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jarome Iginla had two goals and an assist, Blake Comeau had a goal and an assist and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ottawa Senators to end a four-game losing streak.

Iginla has 15 goals this season and has scored at least that many in 17 of his 20 NHL seasons. He has 604 goals and 1,257 points.

Nathan MacKinnon also scored for the Avalanche, and Carl Soderberg and Tyson Barrie each had two assists. Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves.

Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Chris Neil had goals for Ottawa.

BRUINS 6, JETS 2

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Patrice Bergeron scored twice, Brett Connolly had three assists and the Boston Bruins beat the Winnipeg Jets.

Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists, and Loui Eriksson and Jimmy Hayes each had a goal and an assist for the Bruins. David Pastrnak also scored to help Boston win its fifth straight road game.

Bryan Little had a goal and an assist and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored for Winnipeg.

OILERS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 2

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Connor McDavid had two goals and three assists, Jordan Eberle scored three times and added an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game losing streak.

Josh Leivo and Jake Gardiner scored for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have lost three in a row.

Eberle had an empty-net goal with 54 seconds left in the game for his first NHL hat trick. Benoit Pouliot notched his fourth assist on the goal.

FLAMES 6, SHARKS 5, SO

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Juri Hudler scored the winning goal in the shootout, leading the Calgary Flames past the San Jose Sharks.

After San Jose trailed 4-1 after one period, Joonas Donskoi and Dylan DeMelo scored early in the third period to give the Sharks a brief lead before Kris Russell tied it at 5 with just under 12 minutes left in regulation.

Sam Bennett and Mark Giordano scored within 1:06 of each other as the Flames scored four times in the first period. Sean Monahan and Mikeal Backlund also had goals for the Flames, who won their third straight.

Tommy Wingels, Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks.