Ovechkin’s historic hat trick leads Caps over Canadiens

WASHINGTON » Alex Ovechkin scored four goals to become the first player in 100 years with back-to-back hat tricks to open a season, and the Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 on Saturday night.

Ovechkin had three goals in the third period in Thursday’s victory at Ottawa, and then matched the feat while helping chase Montreal goalie Carey Price in the first period Saturday. He added his fourth goal at 16:46 of the second against Al Montoya.

It was the fourth fourgoal game of his career and second against the Canadiens.

Three players had hat tricks in the first two games of the 1917-18 season: Cy Denneny of Ottawa, Joe Malone of Montreal and Reg Noble of Toronto, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. PENGUINS 4, PREDATORS 0 » Evgeni Malkin scored, Matt Murray stopped 26 shots and the Penguins beat the Predators in a Stanley Cup Final rematch.

Olli Maatta, Ryan Reaves and Jake Guentzel also scored in Pittsburgh’s first win in its third game of the season. The two-time defending champion Penguins were coming off an ugly 10-1 loss at Chicago at Thursday. DEVILS 4, AVALANCHE 1 » Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher set up three power-play goals, and the Devils opened with a victory over the Avalanche. HURRICANES 5, WILD 4 » Jaccob Slavin scored in the shootout, sending Carolina to the win. Victor Rask scored late in regulation and Sebastian Aho had two key assists while Noah Hanifin, Joakim Nordstrom and Derek Ryan also scored to help Carolina win its opener. ISLANDERS 6, SABRES 3 » John Tavares scored twice to lead New York over Buffalo in its home opener. MAPLE LEAFS 8, RANGERS 5 » Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri scored third-period goals and the Maple Leafs held off the Rangers in their wild home opener.

It was an adventure in defending for both teams at times, with Toronto pulling ahead 5-1 in the first period and chasing Henrik Lundqvist before the Rangers scored four straight to quiet the Air Canada Centre crowd. BLUES 4, STARS 2 » Jake Allen made 38 saves and the Blues used three first-period goals to beat Dallas and spoil coach Ken Hitchcock’s return to St. Louis. PANTHERS 5, LIGHTNING 4 » Jared McCann scored the tiebreaking goal for Florida in the third period after a review overturned the initial ruling of goalie interference. RED WINGS 2, SENATORS 1 » Frans Nielsen scored the only goal in the shootout, lifting Detroit to the road win.