Capitals overtake Ducks in explosive 3rd period

Nic Dowd scored the winning goal with 6:35 remaining and Aliaksei Protas recorded his first career hat trick for the Washington Capitals, who pulled away to a 7-4 victory over the host Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.

Pierre-Luc Dubois posted a goal and two assists. Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier scored goals, and Alex Ovechkin tied a season high with three assists. Tom Wilson and Brandon Duhaime notched two assists each. Logan Thompson made 25 saves as Washington won its fifth straight.

Frank Vatrano, Pavel Mintyukov and Drew Helleson each had a goal and an assist for Anaheim. Jacob Trouba added his first goal of the season. Lukas Dostal finished with 36 saves as he faced more than 40 shots for the fifth time this season.

On the go-ahead goal, Dowd was in the right place at the right time after Wilson's shot bounced off Dostal and right to the 34-year-old forward, who put the rebound in from the slot.

That was one of six goals between the two teams in the third period.

Anaheim scored a pair of game-tying goals less than two minutes apart in the third period. Mintyukov tied it at 3 at 4:26, but Protas' second goal regained the lead for the Capitals just 31 seconds later. Vatrano, off a pass from Ryan Strome, tied it up again at 6:18.

Beauvillier scored his first goal in a Capitals uniform at 18:24. Washington acquired the winger from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline last week.

With Dostal pulled in the game's final minute, Ovechkin had the puck and a chance to get another goal closer to Wayne Gretzky's record 894 goals, but he passed it ahead to the 6-foot-6 Belarusian forward to finish off the best game of his career.

Strome's goal was the 20th of the season, giving him four straight seasons with at least that many goals. It gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead just 2:07 into the game. However, Trouba and Helleson scored less than 30 seconds apart to give the Ducks the lead.

Protas tied the game with 1:46 left in the first.

--Field Level Media