POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 6, Canes 5 (SO)

Back-To-Back Hat Trick Attack - Alex Ovechkin scored Washington's first goal of Friday night's game in Carolina, tying the game at 1-1 early in the first. He netted the Caps' third goal of the game late in the second period, and his third goal of the game came on the power play and gave Washington a 5-4 lead midway through the third.

The Caps went on to earn their fourth straight win, a 6-5 shootout triumph over the Hurricanes, and the hat trick was Ovechkin's second in as many games; he scored three goals in Tuesday's 6-2 win over the Red Wings in Washington.
Ovechkin had consecutive hat tricks last season too; he scored four goals in Ottawa on opening night (Oct. 5, 2017) of the '17-18 season and netted four against Montreal in Washington's home opener two nights later.
With the second set of consecutive hat tricks in his career, Ovechkin becomes one of only 13 players in league history to achieve the back-to-back feat twice in his career. Joe Malone had four instances of consecutive hat tricks in his career and Wayne Gretzky had three. Ovechkin is one of only seven players to achieve the feat in the NHL's "modern era," since 1943-44. Prior to Ovechkin, the last NHL player with two instances of consecutive hat tricks in his career was Alexei Kovalev in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

Friday's hat trick was the first of his career against Carolina, and Ovechkin has now recorded a hat trick against 14 different NHL franchises, the 13th player in league history to have three-goal games against as many different clubs. With 22 career hat tricks, Ovechkin is tied with Teemu Selanne for 11th place on the league's all-time list.
Ovechkin now has 28 goals in just 31 games this season, becoming the 18th player in the modern era to score as many as 28 goals in his team's first 31 games of a season. Ovechkin is just the third player to do so since 1993-94; he joins Jaromir Jagr (1995-96 and 1996-97) and Mario Lemieux (1995-96) in achieving that distinction.

Baker's Dozen - Ovechkin also rolled his scoring streak to 13 straight games, matching his career-best run established from Jan. 1-Feb. 1, 2007 when he was in the middle of his sophomore season in the league. He totaled eight goals and 20 points during that streak nearly 12 years ago; he has rolled up 16 goals and 22 points during the life of his current streak.
Rally In Raleigh - The Caps go into Saturday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres with a five-point lead over second-place Columbus in the Metropolitan Division standings. But without its "comeback-ability" this season, the Caps might be looking up at one or more teams in the standings.
Three times in the first quarter of the 2018-19 season, the Caps rallied from a multi-goal deficit to earn a point by forcing overtime, only to lose in the extra session or in the shootout. They had that result in Pittsburgh on Oct. 4 and at home against Florida on Oct. 19 and against Dallas on Nov. 3.
On Nov. 19 in Montreal, they again dug out of a multi-goal hole to force overtime, but the Caps won that one in overtime on a Lars Eller goal, and they weren't forced to settle for a single standings point.
On Nov. 24 against the Rangers in New York, the Caps were down 2-0 midway through the second period before engineering a 5-3 comeback victory.
And on Friday night in Raleigh, Washington rebounded from a 4-1 ditch in the middle of the second to take a 5-4 lead in the third. In the end, the Caps forged a 6-5 shootout victory over the Hurricanes.

That's a total of nine of the Caps' 41 points that were earned coming back from deficits of two or more goals.
"I've said this before," says Caps center Nic Dowd, in his first season with Washington, "at no point have I ever been sitting on the bench with this team and thought we were out of the game. At 4-1 with the whole game left to go, I knew our power play was going to get one, and then it comes down to our guys making plays.
"I think we eventually took advantage of them playing a back-to-back, and that's what teams have to do, deep in the second period. [We had] a couple of fortunate bounces, and the same for [the Hurricanes] too. I think we played well."
The Caps were one of three NHL teams to really from deficits of three or more goals to win on Friday night, just the second night in league history in which three or more teams were able to do so. For Washington, Friday's game was the first time in nearly three years that the Caps were able to dig out of a three-goal hole to win a game; they did so on Dec. 18, 2015 against Tampa Bay.

Helping Hands -Caps defenseman John Carlson dealt out three assists in Friday's game, the second time this season he has done so. He becomes the first Caps defenseman to have a pair of three-assist games in the same season since Sergei Gonchar turned the trick in 2002-03; Gonchar had four such games that season.
Carlson has piled up a remarkable total of 21 assists over his last 18 games, without scoring a goal during that stretch. He leads all NHL defensemen this season with 30 assists, and he ranks fifth in the league in that department among all players.
Number Nine, Number Nine - Dowd had a career-high three-point game on Friday, picking up three assists. Dowd has been hot of late; he has three goals and 10 points in his last 10 games.
Dowd is the ninth different Caps player this season to record a three-point game in the team's first 31 contests of the campaign.
All Aboard -Caps defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler picked up the primary assist on Ovechkin's first goal of Friday's game, earning the first point of his NHL career in the process.

With Siegenthaler earning a point, all 23 skaters and both goaltenders who have seen action with Washington this season have now collected at least one point.

On A Heater -Travis Boyd scored his first NHL goal last Saturday in Columbus, and starting with that game has scored in three straight contests. Boyd has three goals and seven points in his last eight games.
Sitting Out - With Tom Wilson back in the Caps' lineup on Friday, Washington had its full complement of healthy forwards going into a game for just the third time this season. In Minnesota on Nov. 13, newcomers Dmitrij Jaskin and Dowd were the healthy scratches and a night later in Winnipeg, Jaskin and Boyd sat out.
But in the month between then and now, Jaskin, Dowd and Boyd have come together to form what has been a resoundingly successful fourth line for the Caps. On Friday in Carolina, Andre Burakovsky sat out a second straight game while Chandler Stephenson sat out for the first time in 2018-19. Thirty-one games into the season, the Caps are down to eight players who have played in all of them.
By The Numbers - Carlson led the Caps with 25:47 in ice time and with five blocked shots … Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov led the Caps with five shots on net each, and Ovechkin led the way with a dozen shot attempts … Devante Smith-Pelly led Washington with four hits … Dowd won six of nine draws (67 percent).