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WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin stretched out his arms in celebration, teammates mobbed him along the boards and jubilant fans launched their hats onto the ice.This was the performance they had waited to see.Ovechkin scored his first hat trick this season and 16th of his 10-year NHL career to lead the Washington Capitals over the St. Louis Blues 4-3 on Wednesday night.In the process, the three-time MVP and six-time goal-scoring champ showed the attitude that echoed his best seasons.He played with excitement again, Capitals coach Barry Trotz said of Ovechkin, whose 12 goals now tie him for second in the league. I think sometimes we say hes not scoring enough and all that. . Ive been reducing the minutes a little bit and spreading them out. Hes fresher and I think it will pay off in the long run.The 31-year-old Ovechkin played fewer than 16 minutes but had a goal in each period to move one hat trick ahead of Floridas Jaromir Jagr for the most among active players.Ovechkins second multi-goal game this season also propelled the Capitals to their third win through four games of a five-game homestand.Sometimes you just feel right away when you have an opportunity to shoot the puck, Ovechkin said, and obviously feel the puck on your stick and just go out there and use the momentum.Capitals linemate Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored and added an assist for Washington, which held a lead throughout the final two periods.The biggest thing is they were moving their feet and they were making plays, and they were decisive in what they were doing, Trotz said of the line that also included Andre Burakovsky.Vladimir Tarasenko got his eighth and ninth goals of the season for St. Louis, which scored twice in the final 75 seconds. Alex Pietrangelo added a late goal for the Blues, who had won four straight.The Blues fell behind after a first period in which they committed four penalties, the last of which led to Ovechkins first goal.When you dont use your legs, you end up using your stick, and thats whats happened, St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. Theres too many of them early in the game. It sends the wrong message to the rest of the team.Ovechkin had already scored twice before Kuznetsovs goal made it 3-1 early in the third. And after a replay review found Ovechkin not to be guilty of being offside, he sent the home crowd into a frenzy only 24 seconds later.From a faceoff in the Caps end, he got the puck near his own blue line on the left and pushed forward quickly. With a man open to his right, Ovechkin instead unleashed a ferocious shot at full stride that caromed off goalie Carter Huttons glove and into the top left corner.Its fun to watch when hes making the shot and when hes feeling it, Kuznetsov said. Its tough to stop him.On a power play in the first, Ovechkin took Kuznetsovs feed and rifled a wrist shot that skimmed off and over Huttons left shoulder.Ovechkin made it 2-0 in the second when he took John Carlsons cross-ice feed and fired a slap shot from a similar spot inside the left faceoff circle off the goalies blocker.Game notes Ovechkin is one power-play goal shy of becoming the 18th player in NHL history to reach 200. ... Tarasenko has 13 points in his last 10 games. ... Capitals C Lars Eller (upper body) returned after a one-game absence, but RW T.J. Oshie (upper body) missed his second game. ... Washington outshot St. Louis 10-2 during the first period.UP NEXT:Blues: Begin a five-game homestand against Minnesota on Saturday.Capitals: Close a five-game homestand Friday against Buffalo. Wholesale Shoes . William Carrier opened the scoring for Cape Breton (6-4-2), but Andrew Ryan tied the game and Brent Andrews put the Mooseheads (8-6-0) in front for good with a short-handed goal at 13:49 of the second period. Cheap Shoes China . Pierce was ejected in the third quarter of Indianas 103-86 win Monday. George Hill stole a bad pass and was going in for a layup, and Pierce hustled back and appeared to be trying to wrap him up. http://www.shoeschinacheap.com/ . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Cheap Nike Shoes China . Badenhop was 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA in 63 relief appearances for Milwaukee this season. He is 18-20 in his career with three saves and a 3. HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Jimmie Johnson had the commemorative helmet and a photographer chronicling his every move. He even ran a symbolic 7 miles the night before his shot at a seventh championship.He must have known something special was coming.Johnson was the dog of the championship contenders in a winner-take-all season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He needed only to beat three other drivers to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt as drivers with seven titles, but he was the worst of the final four for all but one lap Sunday night.Johnson was practically gifted his seventh title when Carl Edwards aggressive attempt to win the championship ended in a wreck that opened the door. Johnson got the restart of his life in overtime, took the lead on the last lap of the race, won for the first time in his career at Homestead and grabbed that elusive seventh title.I had this crazy calmness over myself all day long leading into this, Johnson said. Even with us running fifth and the championship looking like its not going to be there, I just felt something.Most of the race was spent talking about backflips, repeats or a Penske sweep because Johnson just wasnt as good as contenders Edwards, reigning series champion Kyle Busch or Joey Logano.Then all that conversation took a backseat to a record-setting -- albeit improbable -- championship run. The win was the 15th for Hendrick Motorsports and seventh for crew chief Chad Knaus, who now trails only Dale Inmans record eight.Johnsons No. 48 Chevrolet was seized by NASCAR shortly before the race for a last-minute trip through inspection, setting Johnson up for a mind-boggling race in which he never seemed to be a legitimate contender. He had to start last because of the inspection issue and was the worst of the final four, and he had no shot until Edwards coughed away the title.Petty welcomed Johnson to the VIP section of NASCARs most exclusive club.They set a goal to get where they are, and circumstances and fate made it a reality, Petty said. Jimmie is a great champion and this is really good for our sport.He was also feted by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who represented his late father in Victory Lane.I told Jimmie I wish Dad was here to shake his hand, Earnhardt said. Dad would think hes such a badass. Hes such a great race car driver. How he won this thing tonight, I dont think a lot of people know, he can will himself to get [his all] out of a car when it matters. Theres a lot of circumstance that played into it, but he put himself in that position.Edwards was in position to win until a caution with 10 laps remaining set up a wild sequence that ruined his title hopes. Edwards tried to block Logano on the restart, wound up wrecked, and it was Johnson who drove through the carnage to take the championship lead.Johnson withstood two more restarts, and dedicated the final two attempts at the win to the late Ricky Hendrick, who was one of 10 friends and family members killed in a 2004 plane crash.My heart was full because I was thinking of some loved ones like Ricky Hendrick and his influence, he said. Something happened from above.Johnson drove the entire 10-race Chase with a tribute helmet to Earnhardt and Petty, the Hall of Fame drivers hes been chasing since he won his sixth ttitle in 2013.dddddddddddd Immediately after the race, he gifted the helmet to three-time champion Tony Stewart, who retired at the end of the race.Drivers have been giving Stewart special helmets the past month, but Johnson had earmarked this one for the driver forever known as Smoke.I promised him Id give him a helmet; I wanted to wait and see if I could give him this one, Johnson said. He doesnt really want it. He said if I want it back, I can have it back, but I promised Id give him a helmet.The title was there for the taking for Edwards until the fateful sequence that changed history.He was leading when Dylan Lupton brought out a caution with 15 laps remaining, and it forced Edwards to hold off the competition on a restart with 10 to go.Logano, so masterful on restarts for two years now, tried to dart around Edwards on the bottom. Edwards refused to yield and tried to fend off the move by blocking Logano low. Contact between the two sent Edwards hard into an interior wall, then all the way across the track for a second hit. He had been the most dominant driver of the Chase contenders but was left with a wrecked car.He came down right in front of me, Logano said on his radio.Edwards stood on the track and watched the replay of the accident, and appeared to mutter damn, hands on hips, before he began a long walk to pit road. Once there, he stopped at Loganos pit box before continuing a journey on foot through the infield to make the mandatory stop at the care center.He acknowledged he was aggressive protecting his position from Logano.I was racing for my life up to that point, he said. I just pushed the issue as hard as I could because I figured that was the race there. I had to push it -- I couldnt go to bed tonight and think that I gave him that lane.The beneficiary of Edwards error, though, was Johnson, who had darted through the wreck ahead of Busch and Logano. Knaus pumped his fists in joy, all too aware that they were suddenly in the game.Thats what makes a seven-time champion -- someone that fights and battles and digs and never gives up, said four-time champion Jeff Gordon, the teammate who discovered Johnson for Hendrick Motorsports. They keep themselves in position and allowed some of those unfortunate instances to work in their favor. You can say luck, whatever you want to say, but those guys battled. They battled hard.Logano wasnt giving up his effort, though, and headed to pit road to take on new tires for a final restart.This guy on a restart with five laps to go, Ill take him every day of the week, crew chief Todd Gordon said.Logano restarted eighth but was a bull as he pushed his way through traffic and into third place, behind Johnson, after a caution forced another restart.This time, Johnson got the start of his life and jumped into the lead. He didnt look back, only forward at his slice of NASCAR history.They were nowhere all day, and just kind of ran around, I dont know, probably, Id guess sixth, said Busch, who ended up sixth. Never really showed their hand at all and didnt really show any speed, never really led in the laps until the last one, and thats the only one that really matters. ' ' '