Necas scores twice in 4-point night as Hurricanes beat Blues

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas had two goals and two assists as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Sunday.

Andrei Svechnikov and Eric Robinson also scored for the Hurricanes, who’ve won two straight following a 1-2 road trip. Robinson added two assists. Pyotr Kochetkov made 29 saves.

Necas has a 13-game points streak since he was kept off the scoresheet Oct. 19 at St. Louis.

Jake Neighbours opened the scoring for St. Louis, but the Blues lost for the fifth time in six games (1-4-1).

CAPITALS 5, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored three goals Sunday night to continue his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s career record, and former Golden Knight Logan Thompson saved 40 shots in his first game back at T-Mobile Arena as Washington beat Vegas.

Jakob Chychrun and Jakub Vrana also scored goals for the Capitals, and Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas each had two assists.

Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar scored for the Golden Knights, and Ilya Samsonov stopped 20 shots.

Ovechkin now has 866 goals, 29 from surpassing The Great One as the NHL career leader. It was his 31st career hat trick and his 176th career multigoal game, behind only Gretzky’s 189. Ovechkin also extended his record to 315 power-play goals.

Both goals also were his first against former Capitals goalie Samsonov.

RANGERS 2, KRAKEN 0

SEATTLE (AP) — Alexis Lafreniere and Zac Jones scored as New York beat Seattle.

Jonathan Quick stopped 24 shots for his second straight shutout and 62nd of his career. Quick has won all five of his starts as the backup to Igor Shesterkin.

Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves for the Kraken, who snapped a four-game winning streak.

Lafreniere got the opening goal with 2:30 left in the second period. Artemi Panarin’s pass from the left boards found Lafreniere at the left side of the net behind Grubauer for an easy goal. The assist extended Panarin’s point-scoring streak to seven games.

Jones added a second goal about three minutes into the third period.

PREDATORS , CANUCKS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored two power-play goals to help Nashville beat Vancouver.

Nashville improved to 5-10-3, winning for the first time in four games and for only the second time on the road at this season.

Zachary L’Heureux scored his first NHL goal and Roman Josi and Gustav Nyquist — into an empty net — also scored for Nashville. Juuse Saros made 24 saves.

Aatu Raty, Elias Pettersson and Kiefer Sherwood scored Vancouver, and former Predator Kevin Lankinen stopped 16 shots. The Canucks dropped to 9-5-3.

The Predators opened the scoring at 5:28 of the first period when L’Heureux collected a loose puck in front of the net and fired it past Lankinen.