The hottest player on the NHL night was Russian.

Alexander Ovetchkin accounted for three hits as Washington defeated Florida 4-3.

It was his first hat-trick of the season, and his 28th hat-trick of his NHL career, and came days after he made three assists against Montreal.

Ovetchkin made sure that Washington turned the game around in the second period, following a 1-0 lead for Florida after the first.

Ovetchkin stood for both 2-1 and 3-1 and put Washington in the driver's seat before the final period.

It is noteworthy that he withdrew from the match for a few minutes in the first period after being hit by a shot in the face.

But he was not finished there.

Four minutes into the third period, he shot 4-2 for the Capitals, scoring his 18th goal of the season.

Florida approached 4-3, but Washington and Ovetchkin were able to hold off until victory. 

Several Swedish players were noted in the points record in the night's other twelve matches.

Gustav Nyquist and Adam Boqvist each saw with their important goal that Columbus could take their third straight victory in NHL ice hockey via 4-2 at home against Vancouver.

Nyquist struck in the first period, when he in a numerically disadvantage broke a pass at his own blue line and countered 1-0.

Vancouver equalized before Boqvist from a narrow angle again gave his team the lead.

Despite another equalizer, Columbus was able to puncture the match with two goals in the final period.

Two points by Rakell

Also in Anaheim, there were two Swedish goal scorers.

The home team won with a clear 4-0 against Ottawa.

At the end of the first period, Rickard Rakell got the puck behind the Ottawa goal and found Isac Lundeström who got the puck into the goal behind Anton Forsberg.

Rakell was then the one who finished the goal scorer in the match when he scored 4-0 in the middle of the final period.

Anaheim thus broke three one-match losing streak while Ottawa, which during the autumn was hard hit by Covid, now has four straight losses.

In Nashville, Andreas Johnson scored New Jersey's first goal, but that goal came too late.

The Swede's net hit meant a reduction to 1-3 at the beginning of the third period and in the end Nashville won 4-2.