Washington 5, Boston 3

Mathieu Perreault scored his first career hat trick to lift the Washington Capitals to a 5-3 victory over the visiting Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Perreault completed the trifecta with the game-winning goal at 7:18 of the third period as Washington improved to 8-1 in its last nine home games.

Cody Eakin and Dennis Wideman also scored and Roman Hamrlik had a pair of assists for the Capitals, who were playing without star forward Alex Ovechkin after he was suspended for three games Monday.

Washington netminder Tomas Vokoun turned aside 29 shots to beat the Bruins for only the sixth time in 18 career starts.

Rich Peverley, Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand scored for Boston, which enters the All-Star break trailing the New York Rangers by two points for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Eakin and Perreault scored 41 seconds apart during a five-goal second period against Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, who suffered his second straight loss following a seven-game winning streak.

After Seguin drew Boston even at the 12:21 mark, Perreault scored on a breakaway two minutes later before Marchand tied it again on the power play at 17:42.

• Washington will play their next game on the road against Washington . The Capitals have a W/L % of .577 after a win and .500 after a loss.
• Boston will play their next game at home against Ottawa . The Bruins have a W/L % of .625 after a win and .733 after a loss.