Jaden Schwartz had a goal and three assists and Philipp Grubauer made 37 saves against his original NHL team as the Seattle Kraken snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory against the visiting Washington Capitals on Sunday night.
Calle Jarnkrok and Yanni Gourde each added a goal and an assist and Jared McCann and Adam Larsson also tallied for the Kraken.
Tom Wilson had a goal and an assist and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals, who had a seven-game point streak (6-0-1) come to an end. Goaltender Vitek Vanecek, selected by Seattle in the expansion draft and then traded back to the Capitals a week later when the Kraken signed Grubauer, stopped 26 of 30 shots.
Trailing 1-0, McCann tied the score at 15:58 of the first on the power play. He collected a rebound of Schwartz’s shot between the faceoff circles and put a backhander on net that deflected off the stick of Washington’s Carl Hagelin and into the net.
The Kraken scored on three of their nine shots in the second period.
Schwartz gave them the lead at 6:17, slipping the puck under the goalie from the right post after Colin Blackwell’s shot deflected off Carson Soucy’s stick in the slot.
Just 43 seconds later, Seattle got a three-on-two breakaway and Gourde sent a pass from the left wing to Larsson, a defenseman who had jumped into the play, and he redirected the puck over a sprawling Vanecek.
The Kraken made it 4-1 at 13:51 of the second as Jarnkrok took a pass from Schwartz and skated in on a two-on-one, pulling up between the faceoff circles and sending a puck into the upper-right corner of the net.
Wilson opened the scoring at 3:34 of the first period on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle after Evgeny Kuznetsov forced a turnover behind the Seattle net.
Ovechkin scored on a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle that went off Grubauer’s glove at 3:09 of the third.
Gourde put the puck into an empty net with 29 seconds remaining to clinch the victory.
Capitals forward T.J. Oshie, who grew up in the Seattle area, didn’t play after making his return Saturday night in San Jose. Oshie had been out since Oct. 27 with a leg injury.
–Field Level Media