Capitals double up Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. — Mike Green's NHL-record goals streak for defensemen ended at eight games, but Alexander Ovechkin scored three times to give the Washington Capitals a 4-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday.

Green fell one short of tying the overall Washington record for consecutive games with a goal, set by Alan Haworth (1985-86) and matched by Mike Gartner (1986-87).

Ovechkin's second goal broke a tie with 2:31 left, and he completed the hat trick with an empty-netter to push his NHL-leading goals total to 41.

Eric Fehr also scored for Washington, extending his goals streak to four games.

DEVILS 6, SHARKS 5: At Newark, David Clarkson scored his second goal of the game on a power play with 3:32 to play and New Jersey completed a sweep of the conference leaders. Brian Gionta, Brian Rolston, Patrik Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner also scored to help the Devils won for the 13th time in 15 games. This latest win came just two days after a 1-0 victory over NHL-leading Boston.

AVALANCHE 6, RED WINGS 5 (SO): At Detroit, Jordan Leopold scored in the fifth round of a shootout, and Andrew Raycroft stopped 40 shots in regulation and overtime and allowed only Henrik Zetterberg's goal in the second round of the tiebreaker. Wojtek Wolski also scored in the shootout to help Colorado end a four-game losing streak. Ian Laperriere had a goal and an assist, and Ruslan Salei, Marek Svatos, Ben Guite and Milan Hejduk also scored in regulation for the Avalanche.

FLYERS 5, RANGERS 2: At New York, Mike Richards' short-handed goal sparked a four-goal second period, and rookie Claude Giroux had a goal and two assists for Philadelphia. Richards, who leads the NHL with five short-handed goals this season, became the first NHL player to score three 3-on-5 goals in a career.

HURRICANES 3, SABRES 0: At Buffalo, Cam Ward made 36 saves for his third shutout in 10 starts, and Eric Staal had a goal and two assists for Carolina.

THRASHERS 8, DUCKS 4: At Anaheim, Ilya Kovalchuk scored three goals in 6:51 span of the second period and also had an assist for Atlanta.

CANUCKS 4, CANADIENS 2: At Vancouver, Daniel and Henrik Sedin each had a goal and an assist for the victorious Canucks.