OVECHKIN SCORED HIS FIRST HAT TRICK THIS SEASON

The last game before the Vancouver-2010 of the main NHL stars Alexandr Ovechkin, Evgeniy Malkin and Sidney Crosby ended up with a splendid hat trick of the Washington superstar and 14th consecutive victory of his team.


The NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NBC were forcing Washington and Pittsburgh not to cancel the match because of bad weather in the US capital.

The blizzard blustering in Washington this weekend (called Snovechkin among hockey fans) brought the transport systems to a standstill and many people feared that the Penguins would not be able to arrive.

But they did come (the road took them nine hours) and the match proved to be special. Alexander Ovechkin scored his first hat trick this season and added an assist in the overtime.

That was a beautiful good bye from Alex to his supporters before the Olympics for the last three matches the Capitals play on the road.

"It is always wonderful to win," said the hero of the match hardly catching his breath. "And it is also superb to score especially in such important matches. Moreover after such a bad start of the game."

"Our players have temperament and we deserved this victory."

"I think the weather interfered in the course of the match. We are used to the situations when supporters wind us up during the warm-up and this time many people were late for the start of the match because of the snowstorm."

"And it was unnaturally quiet for us. That probably threw us off our stride a bit. But in the third period supporters helped us and we would not stop."

"I am approaching my perfect conditions before the Vancouver. I must have this tempo."