DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon scored three of his four goals consecutively in the second period for a natural hat trick and added an assist to help the Colorado Avalanche beat the Washington Capitals 6-2 on Wednesday night.
MacKinnon, the NHL scoring leader with 82 points, had his second four-goal game of the season and eighth career hat trick. He ran his home points streak to 24 to break a tie with Joe Sakic for the franchise record.
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and four assists for his first five-point game, Cale Makar set the franchise record for goals by a defenseman with his 76th and Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves.
MacKinnon scored three times in a 6:37 span of the second period. The first two were one-timers on the power play. On the third, he deked Charlie Lindgren and beat him with a backhander at 9:16 for just the second natural hat trick since the franchise moved to Colorado in 1995. Sakic had the other one, March 13, 2003, at Columbus.
Dylan Strome scored twice for Washington.
HURRICANES 3, BRUINS 2
BOSTON (AP) — Jordan Martinook snapped a tie on a breakaway with 2 1/2 minutes left, Spencer Martin stopped 25 shots and Carolina ended Boston's winning streak at six games.
Brad Marchand scored two third-period goals to tie Ray Bourque on the Bruins’ career list as Boston rallied from a two-goal deficit. But Martinook took a feed from Martin Necas and wristed the puck through Linus Ullmark’s legs for the lead.
Necas and Teuvo Teravainen also scored for the Hurricanes, giving them a 2-0 advantage after two periods.
Marchand has 395 goals — all with Boston. Bourque, the Hall of Fame defenseman, scored 395 of his 410 career goals with the Bruins.
PANTHERS 6, COYOTES 2
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk scored twice and Florida beat Arizona in a game that started with fights off the first two faceoffs.
Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich also scored for the Panthers and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves. Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley scored for the Coyotes.
The game kicked off with the two fights in the first seven seconds, first between Ryan Lomberg and Jack McBain, then Gadjovich and Liam O’Brien.
Players from both sides met at center ice during pre-game warmups prior to the game, with the Panthers contingent unhappy after Arizona forward Jason Zucker left Florida forward Nick Cousins with a concussion after hitting him from behind in the last meeting between the two teams Jan. 2.
MAPLE LEAFS 1, JETS 0, OT
TORONTO (AP) — Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 39th goal at 4:13 of overtime to lift Toronto past Winnipeg in the opener of a home-and-home set.
Matthews took a pass from Morgan Rielly at the lip of the crease and redirected the puck past goalie Laurent Brossoit. Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season.
The teams will meet again Saturday night in Winnipeg.
Brossoit stopped 29 shots. Winnipeg has lost two straight for the first time since late November. The Jets fell 4-1 in Boston on Monday night.
BLUES 4, CANUCKS 3, OT
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Brayden Schenn scored at 1:54 of overtime to lift St. Louis past Vancouver.
Jake Neighbours had a goal and an assist for St. Louis. Alexey Toropchenko and Pavel Buchnevich also scored and Joel Hofer made 29 saves.
Pius Suter had his second career hat trick for Vancouver, scoring three times in the third period to push the game into overtime. He tied it with 52 seconds remaining in regulation.
SABRES 5, KINGS 3
LOS ANGELES (AP) — JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist, Alex Tuch scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Buffalo rallied to beat Los Angeles.
Jack Quinn had a goal and two assists and Dylan Cozens had a goal and an assist for the Sabres, who trailed 3-1 midway through the first period. Devon Levi stopped 37 shots in Buffalo’s first victory this season when trailing by at least two goals after the first period.
Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe and Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored for Los Angeles.
KRAKEN 6, BLACKHAWKS 2
SEATTLE (AP) — Jared McCann scored his 19th goal of the season early in the first period, Joey Daccord made 34 saves and Seattle handed Chicago its 18th straight road loss.
Tomas Tatar scored twice to help Seattle snapped a four-game losing streak. Jaden Schwartz, Alex Wennberg and Brandon Tanev also scored.
Joey Anderson and Nick Foligno scored for Chicago. The Blackhawks are tied for the fourth-longest single-season streak in NHL history, along with Pittsburgh (1982-83), Quebec (1989-90) and San Jose (1992-93).
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
The Associated Press
