In Washington, DC, the Capitals ended a six-game homestand with a 6-4 win over the visiting Los Angeles Kings Monday night.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 38th of he season; he leads the league in goals.
Evgeny Kuznetsov struck twice and had four points on the night.
“When chances come up, you just have to execute,” Kuznetsov said. “It’s hard to play alone. Right now, when all five guys are rolling and we’re all sharing the puck, when we’re all in the game, it’s always easy to play like that.”
Pheonix Copley made 29 saves to get the win as the Caps improved to 31-18-7.
Austin Wagner had two strikes for the Kings.
LA dropped to 23-28-5.
“It was a tough trip (3-2-1). I thought we played real good the first game [a 4-2 loss against the New York Islanders], and we didn’t get anything out of that one. But we bounced back, played good in the middle,” LA head coach Willie Desjardins said. “It was just a tough game tonight. We didn’t seem to have our legs, but I thought the guys battled.”
Tyler Toffoli and Oscar Fantenberg also scored for the Kings.
The Caps also got goals from Brett Connolly, Christian Djoos and Jakub Vrana.
“We wanted to play a little bit better hockey, actually a lot better hockey after the break, and this homestand was pivotal for us to gather as many points as we could. It didn’t go perfect, but at least we were able to bank some points here before we go on the road,” Caps head coach Todd Reirden said after the game.
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Capitals highlights]
Jonathan Quick made 25 saves in the loss.
“When [the Capitals] transition or when they break out, they’re quick. And it’s not just one or two guys that are quick. They always seem to have four guys in the rush. Eventually, we just seemed to lose our coverage because they just put pressure on us with their speed,” Desjardins said after the loss.
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