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Alexander Semin's five-point performance propelled the Washington Capitals to a 5-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes and into sole possession of first place in the Southeast Division.

Semin, the NHL's leading scorer with 27 points, scored goals in the first and second periods and had three assists to lead the Capitals to their fourth successive win and second over Carolina in six days. They now lead the Hurricanes by two points.

"If he (continues to) play the same, he's going to be the best player in the league," said fellow Russian Alex Ovechkin, last season's MVP and leading scorer who had a goal and two assists in the rout.

"How he plays, how he moves, how he controls the puck, it's amazing ....you want to do the same," said Ovechkin, who found the net for the second consecutive game after going a career-high nine games without scoring a goal.

Mike Green and Nicklas Backstrom had Washington's other goals, both off assists by Semin. Backstrom also had three assists.

Scott Walker collected Carolina's goal on a first period powerplay after Washington had taken a 2-0 lead.

Capitals netminder Brent Johnson injured a hip in the opening period and did not return after the first intermission. He had 13 saves for the win.

Regular goalie Jose Theodore, who has struggled at times this season, took over and shut out the Hurricanes, stopping 13 shots.

Carolina started back-up netminder Michael Leighton and the Capitals scored three goals past him in the game's first 14 minutes.

Ovechkin started the rout off an assist from Semin 5:11 into the contest and Semin made it 2-0 after 10:32.

Walker cut the margin a minute later before Green found the net with Semin's assist at 14:25.

Semin made it 4-1 with his 13th goal of the season midway through the second period and Backstrom got the final goal 8:36 into the third.

"We gave them the first four goals and we turned the puck over twice," said Carolina coach Peter Laviolette, whose team had seven powerplay opportunities including a 5-on-3 but scored only one goal.

Meanwhile, goaltender Tim Thomas made 32 saves and stopped two shots in a shootout to lead the Boston Bruins to a 2-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Thomas, who entered the game with an NHL-best 1.85 goals-against average with three shutouts in 10 starts, limited Chicago to just one shootout goal as the Bruins won their fourth straight contest to improve to 9-3-3.

"I thought both teams played well," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "I don't care about the outcome. Both goaltenders excelled to keep the score low."

P.J. Axelsson put a backhand past Nikolai Khabibulin in the third round to give Boston its final 2-1 shootout advantage and its first shootout win in four tries.

Khabibulin finished with 38 saves, turning the Bruins away during an aggressive overtime period in which they managed eight shots on goal.

"We were on the penalty kill for two minutes (in overtime). (Khabibulin) stood on his head," said right wing Chicago Patrick Kane.

Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews sent the game into overtime with a game-tying goal at 9:10 of the third period, capitalizing on a powerplay to get a rare shot past Thomas.

The Bruins struck first just before the break with 54 seconds remaining in the second period.

Left wing Marco Sturm scored during a powerplay on assists from Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron.

Chicago came into the game riding a four-game winning streak but fell to 7-3-4 with the defeat.

Reuters