Or, in this case, three scores. So with 4:18 remaining in the third period, Ovechkin deposited a nifty pass from Tom Wilson into the back of the net, his third goal of the night, triggering a rain of hats onto the Capital One Arena ice, the final tally in a 5-2 win.

“Yeah, I was little mad, and I just punished them,” Ovechkin said of his response after catching the high stick from Miles Wood that required stitches early in the first period.

It was the 25th hat trick of Ovechkin’s NHL tenure and left him at 689 goals for his career, just one behind Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux for 10th on the all-time list. With 25 hat tricks, Ovechkin is tied for ninth all time with Cy Denneny.

“I could just tell when he got that high stick in the first there and then he got pissed off, and he always plays better when he’s a little pissed off,” Nicklas Backstrom said. “So, there you go. That was drawn up like that, I think. So, came back, got a little mad, scored two and then I was just waiting for the third. That’s the story of Ovi.”

The win left the Capitals 32-11-5, once more atop the NHL in points with 69. They visit the Islanders on Saturday before taking a week off for the all-star break. Ovechkin’s final goal provided a bit of insurance in a game that at first seemed well in hand before a tense third period.

Carl Hagelin’s goal in the opening seconds of the second period – completing a smooth sequence of passes started by Richard Panik and Lars Eller – made it 3-0 and set up what looked like a cakewalk.

But New Jersey’s Wayne Simmonds struck back less than a minute later, and the visitors trimmed the margin to one at 3:34 of the third period on a shorthanded tally from Blake Coleman, who converted a turnover into a breakaway and beat Ilya Samsonov. Coleman’s was the third shorthanded goal the Capitals have yielded in their past four games.

Jakub Vrana gave the Capitals a little breathing room, converting a rebound for his 21st goal at 6:42.

“I just try to stay in the area between the hash marks,” said Vrana, who is easily on his way to surpassing his career-high 24 goals of last season. “I mean there was a bad turnover right on my stick, and I just tried to shoot it quick, and it went in. So I was happy for that.”

Then Ovechkin completed his trick, reaching the 30-goal mark for the 15th consecutive season. He is one of two players in NHL history to reach that mark in each of their first 15 seasons, along with Mike Gartner. (Jaromir Jagr also had 15 consecutive 30-goal seasons, but that streak started in his second season.)

“It never gets old, but without my team, without my teammates, I’d never reach that milestone, I’d never reach those numbers,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously it’s a team effort. It’s really cool. . . . Just have to keep going.”

Ovechkin has tallied five goals in the past two games, accounting for both scores in Monday’s 2-0 win against the Carolina Hurricanes. In both contests, rookie Samsonov was in net, his first stretch of consecutive starts as an NHL goalie.

He stopped 32 shots Thursday to win his ninth straight start, a franchise record for most consecutive wins as a rookie. He is 14-2-1. Samsonov has become the 10th rookie goaltender in NHL history to win nine consecutive decisions and the first since Jordan Binnington in 2018-19. Before Binnington, the feat hadn’t been accomplished since 1982.

Ovechkin’s first goal came on a five-on-three chance for the Capitals at 15:17 of the first, a one-timer from his sweet spot in the left faceoff circle with assists from John Carlson and Backstrom. It marked the third straight game the Capitals’ power play produced a goal, the first time the team has strung together such a stretch since early November. Barely four minutes later, Backstrom won a faceoff and quickly found the captain for his second goal.

“We actually drew up another [play],” Backstrom said of the faceoff. “We were going to do another faceoff play, but I didn’t win it clean, and I had to kick it back there, so he jumped. . . . It used to be working a lot easier. I think teams are jumping from the inside there a little harder, and, obviously, they know we like to do that play, too. So you need to come up with new ideas and new ways to score.”

Backstrom has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in his past 10 contests.

After letting in two goals off the Capitals’ 15 first-period shots, Devils goaltender Louis Domingue exited with a lower body injury, and Cory Schneider replaced him. The change didn’t stop the Capitals.

“Last two games I think we had a really good jump, right off the hop. So that is the plan, to not give them any chance from the beginning, and it worked well,” Vrana said.