GAME RECAP: Capitals 7, Oilers 3

WASHINGTON, DC – The Great Eight and the Washington Capitals, everyone.

Alex Ovechkin notched his 880th, 881st and 882nd career goals to pick up a hat trick in a 7-3 defeat for the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena, bringing the Russian forward within 13 goals of surpassing Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record of 894 goals.

The Capitals scored five unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead into the third period after Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring just 1:42 into the opening frame on the power play with his 42nd goal of the season, but it was Ovechkin and Washington's day and a difficult afternoon for the Blue & Orange.

"I thought it was an excellent start. Good pace, both teams skating well, chances both ends, and the goaltenders made some really big saves, but then they continued that pace and we dropped," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They were able to just make a lot more plays. They were out skating us and we looked like the slow team."

No. 8 completed his hat trick into an empty net with 3:38 left in regulation, combining for nine points alongside linemates Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas, who recorded a goal and two assists and three helpers respectively in the Capitals' victory.

Defencemen John Carlson and Jakob Chychrun each had multi-point afternoons for the League leaders, who improved to 38-11-8 this season.

"We still gave up a lot of odd man rushes, a lot of line rushes and a lot of breakaway here and there," Corey Perry said. "You give the best goal scorer in the world that kind of time he's going to put in the back of the net. So we can clean those things up and move forward."

"They come at you wave after wave," Connor McDavid added. "They got four lines and six D men, and they just roll them. They're an impressive group. Obviously, they're having a great year."

The Oilers dropped their third straight game overall and second consecutive matinée coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break and sit 34-19-4 on the season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner added Edmonton's other two goals, while goaltender Calvin Pickard was solved six times on 33 shots.

Edmonton will continue its five-game road trip on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"Everybody knows how we can play, how good this group is when everybody's playing the right way, and the last probably six-and-a-half periods are not the right way," Perry said. "And if you recognize that, you can start to start to build and start to look up."

FIRST PERIOD

Edmonton's bid for a better effort in the second of back-to-back games coming out of the break started on the right note in the District Capital on Sunday before the hosts struck twice in the last three minutes of the opening period to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.

Connor McDavid might have to embrace his new identity as 'Public Enemy No. 1' in the United States after scoring the tournament-winning goal in overtime in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off, as he's received boo's every time he's touched the puck on this East Coast road trip that show no signs of stopping.

It was no different on an early Oilers power play when the captain circled around Washington's zone with the puck before he found Nugent-Hopkins in the slot, who then dished it to Leon Draisaitl in his regular location inside the right circle for a one-timer past goalie Charlie Lindgren for the German's 42nd goal of the campaign just 1:42 into the frame.

Draisaitl scored in his fifth straight game and pushed his point streak to eight with seven goals and five assists – the 10th time in his career he's scored in five straight games and his 16th point streak stretching at least eight games. McDavid picked up his 50th assist of the season to make it nine consecutive seasons with a half-century of helpers while pulling to within three assists of 700 for his career.

But the Capitals have been persistent shooters this season, owning the league's highest shooting percentage at 13.2 percent along with the NHL's best overall record at 37-11-8 that's been helped by having only one regulation loss in their last 20 games (13-1-6).

Pierre-Luc Dubois filtered a shot on goal off an offensive-zone draw that was kicked away by Calvin Pickard, but winger Tom Wilson was in the perfect spot inside the left circle to bury the rebound for Washington's first of two goals in the final three minutes to take the lead before the intermission.

Less than a minute after the Capitals tied the game, Viktor Arvidsson went into the blue paint in pursuit of the puck a little too aggressively and took a roughing call against centre Nic Dowd. On the ensuing man advantage, defenceman Jakob Chychrun had a shot from the point deflected five-hole by Connor McMichael to put the Caps ahead 2-1 with 24 seconds on the clock in the opening frame.

The Oilers had outscored the Capitals 33-22 over their last eight meetings coming into Sunday night before things started to unravel for them in the middle frame for the second consecutive afternoon after losing 6-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers the day prior.

"Obviously two different styles of game," McDavid said. "I thought we had the puck more against Philly and we gave them offence. I thought today, we struggled all around. They played well. Picks did a great job just keeping them at what we kept them at or what he kept them at, but [we weren't] very good."

SECOND PERIOD

Goals number 880 and 881 and counting for Alex Ovechkin.

The NHL's most-prolific goal scorer of all time crept closer to breaking Wayne Gretzky's record of 894 goals by tallying twice in the middle frame on Sunday at the expense of the Oilers, who for a second straight game lost control during the second period after giving up three more to fall behind 5-1 entering the third period – including two quick strikes in 1:06 from the Capitals late in a disappointing frame from the Blue & Orange.

Ovechkin was open in the slot to take a drop pass from Dylan Strome during a three-on-two rush and beat Calvin Pickard glove side to double Washington's advantage 8:53 into the period. Over 10 minutes later while the Capitals were on the power play, Ovechkin unloaded one of his trademark slap shots from the left circle for his second of the afternoon, drawing the Great Eight to within 13 goals of equalling Gretzky's record and giving the Caps a 4-1 advantage.

If he hadn't missed five weeks with a broken fibula earlier in the season when leading the League with 15 goals in 18 games, there's a good argument that we could've been seeing him break the record today against none other than the team where Gretzky scored 583 of his 694 career goals, but the Russian's pair had the Capitals cruising with a multi-goal lead.

Edmonton's struggles continued when Washington made it 5-1 with their fourth unanswered goal 15 seconds before the end of the period, passing the Oilers into submission when John Carlson and Connor McMichael combined to pull Pickard out of position and feed it into a wide-open net.

THIRD PERIOD

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' 16th goal of the season on a tidy back-hand finish in front gave the Oilers a way back into the game, but it'd be consecutive games where their opponents found a way to put at least six goals past them on another frustrating afternoon.

Viktor Arvidsson made a great play to break up a play along the wall before getting it in front to Nugent-Hopkins, who went forehand-to-backhand with a great move to roof it into the top shelf behind Lindgren 6:35 into the final frame. Zach Hyman picked up the secondary helper to make it a clean sweep on the scoresheet for Edmonton's third line on Sunday.

But after Nugent-Hopkins made it 5-2, it was Dylan Strome who'd get the goal back for the Capitals after he converted a rebound from between the hashmarks following Pickard's initial save on Aliaksei Protas' one-timer from the right circle that was put on his tape by John Carlson.

Protas picked up his third assist of the game after he & Carlson combined for the second time with the assists on the same goal, with Washington's third line of Ovechkin, Strome and Protas finishing with a combined nine points on Sunday after Ovechkin completed a historic hat-trick with the net empty.

Jeff Skinner added an unassisted marker with under five minutes remaining, but this was Alex Ovechkin's afternoon, with Great Eight finishing off his hat trick into Edmonton's empty net with 2:38 remaining to bring the hats down and the gap between him and Gretzky to 12 goals.

With consecutive afternoon defeats coming out of the break, the Oilers dropped their third straight overall dating to before the 4 Nations Face-Off as they continue their road trip on Tuesday afternoon in Tampa Bay against the Lightning.

"Sometimes this happens after breaks. Some teams come out flying, some teams come up flat," McDavid said. "We've obviously done the latter, so we've got to get back to it here."