CHARLIE LINDGREN

WASHINGTON — (AP) — Alex Ovechkin recorded his 30th career hat trick to speed up his pursuit of Wayne Gretkzy's goal record, Charlie Lindgren made 31 saves against his first NHL team and the Washington Capitals skated circles around the Montreal Canadiens on the way to a 9-2 rout Saturday. An undrafted free agent signing by Montreal, Lindgren is unbeaten in two games against the organization he spent his first five professional seasons with. The Capitals dominated absent a short stretch from late in the first period through five or so minutes of the second. They made the Canadiens look helpless and haphazard in their own zone, and on their seventh goal, multiple Washington players did laps around Montreal defenders before Marcus Johansson scored. Allen allowed nine goals on 38 shots for the Canadiens, who have lost eight of nine.

Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick to lead the Washington Capitals to a 9-2 rout of the Montreal Canadiens.

Trade ForBrandon Hagel, LW/RW, Lightning (56% rostered)With a 24-point increase in percentage rostered over the past day, Hagel finally becomes eligible to be featured in this space. It's not too late to hop on the Hagel bandwagon. His minutes were cut playing on a deeper team, and his shooting percentage with the Hawks was absurdly high at 22.3. When the Knights were healthy to start the season, Stephenson saw a small dip in his minutes, but once the injuries started to come, his ice time increased. In fact, Lindgren's fantasy value probably just took a nosedive with the expectation that Kuemper will take back the starting job, making Lindgren easier to acquire.

Nazem Kadri scored three goals, including two during a four-goal second period barrage, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 6-3 to take a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference series.

The Florida Panthers are on the brink of getting swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the back-to-back defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.