The Washington Capitals surged past the Los Angeles Kings to walk away with a 4-2 victory, resting on the shoulders of their leader, Alexander Ovechkin. Trailing by one goal late in the third, the 34-year old captain turned on the heat with three straight goals in four minutes and twenty-four seconds.

“In less than five minutes, he took over the game, ” Coach Todd Reirden said. “We win the game because of that.”

This was Ovechkin’s fourth hat trick of the season, putting him just two goals shy of a career 700. He is on track to do this in 1,140 career games, which would put this the second fastest in NHL history.

He has 16 goals in his past 10 games. When asked if he amazes himself, his response was classic Ovechkin.

“Not yet,” he said. I’m still playing. Right after the year, yeah, I’m pretty sure my family and my friends are going to talk about it, but now personally I don’t try to concentrate about it. I’m just going out there and doing my job.”

The Kings held strong in the beginning of the game, keeping control pretty much until the end. They held Washington to only 12 shots through the first 40 minutes.

Then Ovechkin came alive.

“Give him a couple more years, and he’ll be at 800,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s that type of night where maybe you don’t see him a lot early and then bang, bang, bang – and it’s in the net and they’ve won.”

Looking ahead to the future, McLellan was hopeful in his team’s process.

“Our ability to close and finish out games hasn’t been very good,” he said. “And that’s the next step in our evolution.”

Capitals fans and those around the league may see Ovechkin reach 700 when they take on the Flyers on February 8 at 7:00 p.m. ET.

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As the saying goes, “Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.” Capitals’ left winger Alexander Ovechkin is one of the best players in the National Hockey League and entered Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild with 506 career goals and 31 goals for the year.

Ovechkin was more than a little fortunate in the Caps’ 4-3 win over the Wild as he notched his 14th career hat-trick with three goals in the second period, giving him the league lead with 34 goals.

Ovechkin’s first goal came just over 2 minutes into the second period, when a shot from T.J. Oshie was deflected by Wild forward Zach Parise, the puck went straight to Ovechkin, who was in the left faceoff circle of the offensive zone, and he put the puck past Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk.

The Capitals’ captain’s second goal came when defenseman John Carlson sent a one-time shot off the boards.  The puck deflected right to Ovechkin and he went top shelf beat Dubnyk for the second time.

For his third goal of the period, Ovechkin shot the puck off the rebound and it deflected off of the post before hitting Dubnyk’s back and finally crossing the line to complete the hat-trick.

“It’s a good feeling,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, when you get one, when you get the second one, it’s pretty cool. But when you have three goals in one game, it’s kind of special.”

The win was Washington’s 40th of the year (40-9-4) and they have a league best 84 points, their next game will be Saturday, Feb. 13 in Dallas against the Stars (35-15-5).  The Wild (23-21-10) lost their 7th straight game and have yet to win at home during the 2016 calendar year.  They will get another shot to earn that first home win of 2016 on the 13th, when they host the Boston Bruins (29-19-6).