LAS VEGAS — Jack Eichel’s three goals helped the Vegas Golden Knights bounce back from Thursday’s five-goal loss with a 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

This was Eichel’s fourth career hat trick and second this season. The other for Eichel, who leads the Knights with 26 goals, was Nov. 10 when he returned to Buffalo to face his former teammates.

Alex Pietrangelo had a career-high four assists for the Golden Knights and Phil Kessel and Pavel Dorofeyev each had a goal and an assist. Dorofeyev has five points in four games since being called up from the American Hockey League.

Paul Cotter and Zach Whitecloud had the other Vegas goals.

Jiri Patera, called up March 9, made 35 stops in just his second career start to move to 2-0.

WILD 5, CAPITALS 3: Matt Boldy had his second career hat trick and Minnesota rebounded to beat visiting Washington.

Minnesota, which had its 14-game point-streak end Saturday against Boston, is within one point of Dallas for the Central Division lead and two points up on Colorado for second with a dozen games to play.

Ryan Reaves and Brandon Duhaime also scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves for Minnesota, improving to 7-0-0 in his last seven starts.

RANGERS 7, PREDATORS 0: Defenseman K’Andre Miller had two goals and two assists in New York’s six-goal first period, Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves for his first shutout of the season, and the Rangers beat visiting Nashville.

Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists in the opening period, and Filip Chytil, Mika Zibenejad, Tyler Motte and Chris Kreider also scored to help New York cruse to its fourth straight home win and second shutout in two days. The Rangers beat Pittsburgh 6-0 on Saturday night after also beating the Penguins on Thursday and Washington on Tuesday.

The Rangers scored six times on their first eight shots, chasing Nashville starting goalie Kevin Lankinen after he gave up four goals on five shots. He was replaced by Juuse Saros.

Miller became the first defenseman in franchise history with four points in a single period as the Rangers led 6-0 less than 14 minutes in. The avalanche of early goals tied the franchise record for most in the first period, most recently achieved on Dec. 15, 1999, in an 8-3 home win over Los Angeles.

BLUES 3, JETS 0: Kasperi Kapanen, Nathan Walker and Jakub Vrana each scored to lead St. Louis over visiting Winnipeg.

Rookie goalie and Winnipeg native Joel Hofer started in his first home appearance with St. Louis and stopped 33 shots in his fourth NHL start to help the Blues win for the fourth time in six games. He didn’t get the shutout because he had to leave the ice for a skate repair in the second period. Thomas Greiss had a save while filling in.

Hofer started in place of the suspended Jordan Binnington on Friday and had 33 saves in a 5-2 win against Washington — his first NHL game since Nov. 13, 2021. Hofer, called up from Springfield of the AHL under emergency conditions Thursday after Binnington was suspended, is 3-1-0 in the NHL.

DEVILS 5, LIGHTNING 2: Jesper Bratt scored three goals for his first NHL hat trick as visiting New Jersey rallied from two goals down to end a three-game skid.

Nico Hischier and Nolan Foote also scored to help the Devils improve their league-leading road record to 26-5-4. Vitek Vanecek finished with 22 saves to help New Jersey get a win after losing at home to the Lightning on Tuesday and Thursday before blowing a 2-0 lead in a 4-2 loss at Florida on Saturday.