Capital Night for Gonchar

It was a one-of-a-kind game for Sergei Gonchar and an extraordinary night for the Washington Capitals.

Gonchar scored three goals for the first hat trick of his career and the Capitals staged their most prolific offensive performance of the season Tuesday night in a 6-1 rout of the Montreal Canadiens at Washington.

Gonchar, who had three goals in his first 31 games, doubled that in the opening 31 minutes. It was only the second time in franchise history that a Capital defenseman scored three goals; Kevin Hatcher did it in 1993 against the New York Rangers.

“I was excited,” said Gonchar, a native of Russia. “My mom was here and she was excited too. Our Christmas is coming, so it’s a nice present for me.”

Led by Gonchar, the Capitals held a 5-1 lead after two periods and, for a welcome change, virtually coasted through the final 20 minutes. Washington has played seven ties and 15 one-goal games this season.

“We’ve played so many tight games. You feel so much pressure all the time that it’s fun to have a game like this where you can relax a little bit,” Capital Coach Ron Wilson said.

Gonchar, in his sixth NHL season, had gone 322 games without a hat trick. He also had an assist on a third-period goal that gave the Capitals six in a game for the first time this season.

Phoenix 5, Detroit 2--Shane Doan had two goals and an assist and relief goalie Robert Esche made 25 saves at Detroit for the first victory of his career.

Juha Ylonen, Jeremy Roenick and Rick Tocchet also scored for the Coyotes, who improved their NHL-best marks for road victories (12) and points (26) with their fourth consecutive win at Joe Louis Arena.

Larry Murphy and Steve Duchesne scored for the Red Wings, who lost their second in a row and had a seven-game home unbeaten streak stopped.

Esche replaced starter Bob Essensa, who suffered a strained hamstring, right after Murphy gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead late in the first period.

Atlanta 5, Buffalo 4--Jason Botterill scored with 1:09 to play to cap the Thrashers’ comeback from a three-goal deficit at Buffalo, N.Y.

Botterill scored his first goal of the season when he got behind Buffalo goalie Martin Biron and tapped the puck into the net.

Ray Ferraro and Ed Ward scored in the second period to draw the Thrashers within a goal, and Denny Lambert tied the score on a partial breakaway 18 seconds into the third.

Boston 7, N.Y. Islanders 3--P.J. Axelsson and Anson Carter each scored two goals at Uniondale, N.Y., to lead the Bruins to their first win in eight games.

Joe Murphy, Joe Thornton and Jason Allison also scored for the Bruins.

Ottawa 2, Carolina 1--Shaun Van Allen scored a short-handed goal in the third period at Raleigh, N.C., as the Senators ended a 10-game road winless streak.

Around the League

Vaclav Prospal of the Ottawa Senators apologized to French Canadians for using an ethnic slur against Patrice Brisebois of the Montreal Canadians. But he refused to apologize to Brisebois. . . . Pat Quinn of the Toronto Maple Leafs will coach the North American team and Scotty Bowman of the Detroit Red Wings the World team in the 50th NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 6 at Toronto. . . . Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers received a bloody nose when a car driven by his girlfriend ran off the road early New Year’s Day, police in Voorhees, N.J., said.