Sourdif scores 1st NHL hat trick, gets 5 points to help Capitals top Ducks

WASHINGTON -- Justin Sourdif scored his first NHL hat trick and had two assists, and the Washington Capitals held on for a 7-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Capital One Arena on Monday.

“I can’t even remember,” Sourdif said of recording five points in a game previously. “I don’t even know if I had a five-point night in junior, so it might have been a while ago. I think midget maybe when I was 15. It’s been a while, but it was pretty cool.”

The 23-year-old rookie notched his second multigoal game in his past four and has nine points (five goals, four assists) in that span.

“He’s earned the opportunity that he’s getting with how he’s played and how he’s performed,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “It wasn’t handed to him early in the season and sometimes circumstance provides opportunity for young players and it’s on them to take advantage of that, and that’s exactly what he’s done with it.”

Alex Ovechkin scored twice, Connor McMichael had four assists, and Ryan Leonard and John Carlson each had a goal and an assist for the Capitals (22-15-6), who had lost two in a row and six of eight (2-4-2). Charlie Lindgren made 41 saves to help Washington hold on after Anaheim cut a 5-1 deficit to 5-4 midway through the third period.

“The game gets a little bit squirrely there and we’ll just burn that film probably,” Carbery said. “I’ll watch it, but it will be painful, but we’ll take the two points. This was a big game. At the end of the day, this was a huge game for our hockey team. We needed two points tonight.”

Beckett Sennecke extended his goal streak to three games, and Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba also scored for the Ducks (21-18-3), who have lost six straight (0-5-1) and 10 of 12 (2-8-2). Petr Mrazek allowed five goals on 24 shots before being replaced after the second period by Lukas Dostal, who made three saves.

“We did a lot of good things,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. “This was one of those games where we left some on the table, but it kind of shows when you’re having trouble winning games eventually games like this give you an indication that you’ve got to get out of this pretty soon.”

Kreider gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 6:33 of the first period on a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Olen Zellweger.

Sourdif tied it 1-1 at 15:56, taking a drop pass from McMichael and beating Mrazek with a high stick-side wrist shot from the slot.

Sourdif’s second goal gave Washington a 2-1 lead at 18:58 when he received a pass from McMichael on the rush and scored with a high wrist shot glove side from the top of the right circle.

“He was a one-man breakout most times, just carrying it up the ice and he made it easy on me and [Leonard] and luckily we were able to capitalize on a few chances,” McMichael said.

Leonard made it 3-1 at 5:54 of the second period when he knocked the puck in off Mrazek from behind the goal line.

Sourdif completed the hat trick to extend it to 4-1 at 7:30. He started a passing sequence by dropping the puck to Trevor van Riemsdyk and finished it by tipping in a centering pass from Leonard.

“I saw ‘Leno’ with his arms in the air. He was super excited,” Sourdif said. “I wanted to skate over to him because it was just such a nice pass. Beautiful play, the goalie thought he was going to unleash on a one-[timer] and just slid it backdoor to me for a wide-open net.”

Ovechkin pushed it to 5-1 at 8:52 on a wrist shot from the left circle.

Alex Killorn cut it to 5-2 at 12:56 when he beat Lindgren with a wrist shot from the right hash marks.

Trouba made it 5-3 at 14:12, scoring on a slap shot through traffic from the right point.

“I thought we were playing a little more on our toes, a little more aggressive,” Trouba said of Anaheim’s comeback effort. “We sustained some O-zone time and we were defending less.”

Sennecke then cut it to 5-4 at 9:22 of the third period, knocking in a loose puck from the slot for his 14th goal of the season.

“Get a chance early [in the third period] and we score,” Quenneville said. “Got a lot of time to tie it up or maybe do something else.”

Carlson then scored into an empty net at 18:46 to make it 6-4 before Ovechkin also scored an empty-net goal at 19:18 for the 7-4 final.

NOTES: Sourdif matched the Capitals record for points in a game by a rookie, joining Greg Theberge (two goals, three assists on Nov. 21, 1981). He became the ninth rookie in franchise history to record a hat trick and the first since Ovechkin on Jan. 13, 2006, also against the Ducks. … McMichael became the first Capitals player to record four assists in a single game since Carlson (four on April 17, 2021). … Quenneville said Mrazek was pulled because of an injury, adding “I don’t think it’s serious.”