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MONTREAL — Alex Ovechkin had his 33rd career hat trick and added an assist to move into 10th place on the NHL points list, helping the Washington Capitals beat Montreal 8-4 on Thursday night to hand the Canadiens their fifth straight loss.
Ovechkin has 10 goals this season to push his NHL-record to 907. The 40-year-old Russian has 1,643 points to move two past Joe Sakic for 10th on the scoring list. He has scored in four straight games and five of six.
Ovechkin opened the scoring on a power play a minute in the first period, firing a wrist shot past goalie Sam Montembeault off a faceoff. Ovechkin assisted on Ethen Frank's goal two minutes into the second that gave Washington the lead for good at 2-1.
The Washington star scored twice late in the third period, the first on a rush with 4:57 to go and the second into an empty net from his own zone with 2:04 remaining. He tied Brett Hull for fourth in NHL history in hat tricks.
Frank had two goals and two assists, Sonny Milano also scored twice and Jakob Chychrun added a goal. Charlie Lindgren stopped 24 shots.
Dylan Strome had three assists. He learned during the first intermission Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens that wife Tayler had given birth to their third daughter. The couple named the girl Sutton Kimberley.
Coming off a 7-4 home victory over Edmonton on Wednesday night, Washington has won three in a row to improve to 11-8-2. It was the Capitals' lone road game in an eight-game span.
Brendan Gallagher, Joe Valeno, Nick Suzuki and Mike Matheson scored for Montreal. Montembeault was pulled after allowing three goals on 10 shots. Jakub Dobes entered 3:38 into the second period and stopped 20 of 25 shots.
Montreal has lost seven of eight to fall to 10-7-3. The Capitals ousted the Canadiens in the first round of playoffs last season.
Capitals: Host Tampa Bay on Saturday night.
Canadiens: Host Toronto on Saturday night.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
