Hat Trick Propels Jagr to 500th Goal

Jaromir Jagr scored three times, giving him 500 goals in his career, and the Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-1, Tuesday night at Tampa, Fla.

The Southeast Division-leading Capitals have a five-point lead over Tampa Bay.

Jagr became the 33rd NHL player to reach 500 goals when he scored his third of the game at 7 minutes 19 seconds of the second period, a shot from the top of the right circle during a power play.

Jagr’s 30th goal of the season gave him 11 hat tricks in his career. He also assisted on Peter Bondra’s goal and finished with four points.

He is the 16th player to reach 500 goals in less than 1,000 games, doing it in 926.

Vancouver 3, Pittsburgh 2 -- Henrik Sedin and Matt Cooke scored on successive first-period shots and the Canucks held on to win at Pittsburgh, ruining Mario Lemieux’s return to the lineup.

Lemieux, the NHL scoring leader, had an assist while playing his first full game since Jan. 4.

Philadelphia 2, New York Islanders 1 -- Roman Cechmanek stopped 28 of 29 shots and Mark Recchi scored a rare power-play goal with 9:56 left to lift the Flyers at Uniondale, N.Y. Philadelphia has the NHL’s third-worst power-play unit.

Colorado 3, Boston 2 -- Defenseman Greg de Vries scored with 42.3 seconds left in overtime to help the Avalanche win at Boston.

It was the second consecutive overtime game-winning goal for de Vries.

Nashville 5, Detroit 5 -- Denis Arkhipov’s goal with 3:12 left in regulation helped the Predators earn a point at Detroit. Brett Hull remained at 699 all-time goals for the fifth consecutive game for the Red Wings.

New Jersey 4, Buffalo 1 -- Joe Nieuwendyk scored twice and Patrik Elias had a goal and an assist to help the Devils win at East Rutherford, N.J. for their eighth consecutive win at home.

Atlanta 4, Montreal 3 -- Marc Savard scored on the power play with 1:36 left to lift the Thrashers at Montreal.