Zajac, who along with Greene are the only leftovers from the Devils’ team that played in the Stanley Cup Finals, said this is the best he has seen Kinkaid play.”He has always made big plays, but now he is doing it more con

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his 21st hat trick and first this season to lift the Washington Capitals over the Detroit Red Wings 6-2 on Tuesday night.Ovechkin entered the night as the NHL’s goal leader and stretched his total to 25 through 30 games Custom Arizona Coyotes Jerseys , halfway to a potential eighth 50-goal season.Nicklas Backstrom had four assists to help Washington get its third straight victory and 10th in 12 games. T.J. Oshie added a goal in his return from an 11-game layoff due to a concussion, and Travis Boyd and Brett Connolly also scored early.Braden Holtby made 35 stops for Washington, which had scored 12 straight goals over a stretch of more than six periods before Dylan Larkin and Gustav Nyquist broke through in the third.Detroit coach Jeff Blashill pulled goaltender Jonathan Bernier midway through the second period after he saved 10 of Washington’s first 15 shots. Jimmy Howard came in to finish off the Red Wings’ first road loss since their previous trip here on Nov. 23, a night after making a season-high 42 stops in a win over Los Angeles.BRUINS 4, COYOTES 3BOSTON (AP) — Brad Marchand scored two goals and assisted on another during a four-goal, second-period flurry to lead Boston over Arizona.Arizona led 2-0 before Boston scored four times in five minutes, starting when Danton Heinen and David Pastrnak delivered 33 seconds apart. Marchand gave the Bruins the lead two minutes later, and then added another two minutes after that to make it 4-2.Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots for Boston, which won its third straight game and beat the Coyotes for the 14th time in a row. Pastrnak also had two assists, and David Krejci had three for the Bruins.Nick Schmaltz and Nick Cousins scored 40 seconds apart for Arizona in the first period, and Darcy Kuemper made 22 saves for the Coyotes.CANUCKS 3, BLUE JACKETS 2COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Jake Virtanen scored the tiebreaking goal with less than two minutes remaining and Jacob Markstrom stopped 34 shots as Vancouver rallied to beat Columbus.Elias Pettersson got credit for a goal that went in off his skate to tie it with about 3:04 left, and Virtanen’s goal put the Canucks ahead 78 seconds later.Josh Leivo also scored in the third period for the Canucks, who have won three straight after losing 12 of 13.Seth Jones and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored, and Joonas Korpisalo had 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost four of their last five and dropped their last three at home as they entered a stretch of five home games in nine days.WILD 7, CANADIENS 1ST. PAUL www.officialbruinsproonline.com , Minn. (AP) — Matt Dumba scored twice, Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves and Minnesota took out some recent frustrations on Montreal.The Wild scored four times in the second period to recover from a lousy swing through Western Canada, when Minnesota dropped two of three and lost captain Mikko Koivu to injury.Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Eric Staal, Jared Spurgeon and Zach Parise also scored for Minnesota (16-12-2), which went 4 for 4 on the power play.Jeff Petry scored for Montreal (15-11-5), which ended a three-game winning streak.JETS 6, BLACKHAWKS 3WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Kyle Connor scored twice and Winnipeg gave Chicago its eighth straight loss.Mark Scheifele and Tyler Myers each had a goal and assist, Mathieu Perreault scored and Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal for Winnipeg (19-9-2). Dustin Byfuglien had three assists.Laurent Brossoit played his eighth game (seventh start) for the Jets and made 32 saves.Dylan Strome, Dominik Kahun and Alex DeBrincat scored for Chicago. Patrick Kane added a pair of assists.Cam Ward stopped 28 shots for the Blackhawks (9-18-5), who also lost eight straight earlier this season, although two were in overtime. The current slump is all in regulation time.BLUES 4, PANTHERS 3ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brayden Schenn capped St. Louis’ four-goal third period as the Blues beat Florida.David Perron had two goals, and Ivan Barbashev also scored for St. Louis, which had lost three of four and eight of their last 11. Jake Allen made stopped 22 shots to improve to 2-4-0 in his career against Florida.Evgenii Dadonov, MacKenzie Weegar and Mike Hoffman scored for the Panthers Boston Bruins T-Shirts Authentic , who have lost four of five. Roberto Luongo had 29 saves.Schenn’s tiebreaking goal came off a rebound as he backhanded it past Luongo with 3:55 remaining.PREDATORS 3, SENATORS 1NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan Ellis scored his first game-winning goal of the season, Pekka Rinne made 25 saves and Nashville defeated Ottawa.Austin Watson and Craig Smith also scored for the Predators, who halted a two-game skid.Zack Smith scored for the Senators, who have lost four of five.Nashville improved its record against Eastern Conference opponents to 9-0-0 this season.MAPLE LEAFS 4, HURRICANES 1RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — William Nylander had two assists and Morgan Rielly scored the go-ahead goal to lift Toronto over Carolina.The assists were the first points of the season for Nylander, who missed the first 28 games before signing a six-year deal worth $41.7 million.Tyler Ennis, Patrick Marleau and John Tavares also scored for the Maple Leafs, who won for the third time in four road games. Frederik Andersen made 29 saves.The Hurricanes got a goal from captain Justin Williams.SABRES 4, KINGS 3, OTBUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Jeff Skinner scored a power-play goal 1:49 into overtime and Buffalo overcame a 3-1 deficit in the third period to beat Los Angeles.Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist, and the Sabres snapped an 0-3-2 skid that immediately followed their franchise record-tying 10-game winning streak.Johan Larsson and Zemgus Girgensons also scored for Buffalo, which improved to 6-7-2 when trailing through two periods. Linus Ullmark stopped 26 shots.Jake Muzzin had a goal and an assist and Adrian Kempe and Matt Luff also scored for the Kings, who dropped to 2-5-1 in their past eight games.OILERS 6, AVALANCHE 4DENVER (AP) — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice as part of Edmonton’s four-goal second period Boston Bruins Hoodies Authentic , Mikko Koskinen stopped 39 shots and the Oilers extended their winning streak to four games with a victory over Colorado.Connor McDavid added a goal and an assist as the Oilers improved to 8-2-1 since coach Ken Hitchcock took over the struggling team on Nov. 20.Kyle Brodziak scored his first goal in more than a month, Leon Draisaitl added another in his 300th NHL game and defenseman Darnell Nurse got into the scoring act with a slap shot early in the third.Mikko Rantanen, the league’s leading scorer, had a goal and three assists to give him at least a point in 12 straight games. It’s tied for the longest active streak in the NHL with Alex Ovechkin.Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and Colin Wilson added another for the Avalanche. NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Talk about making the most of opportunities. Look at what New Jersey Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid has done the last 10 weeks.Not only did he take over in late January after starter Cory Schneider was injured, he carried the Devils over the final two-plus months and heads into their first playoffs since 2012 as the No. 1 goaltender.Coach John Hynes on Tuesday refused to name his starting goaltender for Thursday night’s opener of the best-of-7 series with the Tampa Bay Lightning.There is, however, little doubt – Kinkaid will be starting his first postseason game. The 28-year-old undrafted free agent posted a 19-6-1 record after Schneider went down with hip and groin injuries. He had a 10-1-1 run in the 12 games that led to the Devils clinching a playoff berth Thursday.From Feb 13 to Apr. 5, Kinkaid had a 16-3-1 mark, a 2.32 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. The win total was the most by an NHL goalie in the span.”He is a gamer,” veteran center Brian Boyle said. ”He competes. He never gives up on plays, especially down the stretch he has given us a real jolt and lifted us up. He’s been a huge part of our team.”Kinkaid is never too high, never too low. He lets in a goal, shrugs it off and gets ready for the next play.It’s not like when Marty Brodeur played and there were chants of ”Mar-tee, Mar-tee” after every big save. Or when Schneider was playing well and chants of ”CORE-EE” filled the Prudential Center. Kinkaid seems to go unnoticed.The 6-foot-3 goalie acknowledges that a few more fans recognize him lately, and he has been getting more texts.”I take it with a grain of salt,” he said. ”There is still a lot of work to do.”Kinkaid said his approach to the postseason won’t change.”You can’t take this any different from what we did at the end of the season when we had to win pretty much all our games to get in,” said Kinkaid Boston Bruins Hats Authentic , who got a rare night off in the regular-season finale Saturday. ”It’s no different here.”Devils captain Andy Greene said the toughest job for a backup – which Kinkaid handled for the past three seasons – is showing what you can do. It’s especially hard when the backup plays in the second game of a back-to-back and his team is tired.”This time, he knew going in he was going to have some time,” Greene said. ”He worked really hard in practice and you can see just how much more confident he is. Like I said 30 times. He is very square to the puck, confident, and when you are feeling that way, the puck seems to find you. He has been a rock back there and we are just feeding off him.”Center Travis Zajac, who along with Greene are the only leftovers from the Devils’ team that played in the Stanley Cup Finals, said this is the best he has seen Kinkaid play.”He has always made big plays, but now he is doing it more consistently,” Zajac said. ”He has given us a chance to win every night. I think that’s the main thing. You just see that consistency in his game, where he is not letting any weak goals in. He is confident now, and that’s a big part of it, too.”Hynes said Kinkaid has gotten better along the way.”That’s preparation, his mental focus, his ability to get to a high level, night in and night out,” Hynes said. ”That’s an improvement for him to go from a guy who didn’t play every night to that and perform real well. That has allowed him to take advantage of his opportunity.”—