WASHINGTON: Washington’s Justin Williams had a hat trick and the Capitals survived the loss of starting goaltender Braden Holtby to beat the New York Rangers 5-2 on Sunday and extend their impressive streak of responding to losses.

In the 11 games the Capitals have played this season when coming off a loss, they have now won 10 and forced overtime in the other.

The overall NHL leaders stretched their lead in the Metropolitan Division to a seemingly unbeatable 17 points.

Of the other divisional leaders in action, Chicago beat Montreal to match a franchise record winning streak of 11 games, Florida lost to state rival Tampa Bay, and Los Angeles edged city rival Anaheim.

Washington goalie Holtby made 20 saves and was credited with the victory despite being pulled late in the second period due to dehydration.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 27th goal of the season, and Marcus Johansson also scored on the power play for Washington.

Chris Kreider had both goals for the Rangers.

Chicago’s Jonathan Toews scored twice as the Blackhawks beat slumping Montreal 5-2.

Marian Hossa had an empty-net goal and two assists for Chicago, Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist. Richard Panik scored his first goal of the season for the Blackhawks, who matched the record of 11 straight wins set three years ago. They will try to break the record when they play at Nashville on Tuesday.

Montreal, the early leaders of the Eastern Conference, is 6-15-2 since star goaltender Carey Price was injured in November.

Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov had two goals in the Lightning’s 3-1 win against Florida, extending its winning run to five games.

Andrej Sustr had the other goal for Tampa Bay, which narrowed the gap between the teams to five points.

Nick Bjugstad scored for the Panthers, who were not able to win to mark goalie Roberto Luongo’s 900th NHL game.

Los Angeles won 3-2 to beat local rival Anaheim in regulation for the first time in 11 regular-season games.

Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist, Vincent Lecavalier added a power-play goal and Tyler Toffoli scored for the Kings.

David Perron scored in his first game with Anaheim and Rickard Rakell also netted for the Ducks, who had to wait a long time for their first meeting with Los Angeles this season, but the teams will play another four times in the regular season.

Vancouver’s Ryan Miller made 47 saves to lead the Canucks to a 2-1 shootout win against the New York Islanders.

Detroit also won 2-1 after a shootout, with Claude Giroux scoring the winner.

Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby scored twice to lead the Penguins to a 5-0 rout of Carolina.