In Washington, DC, Evgeny Kuznetsov struck twice and the Capitals handed the 
Colorado Avalanche a 6-3 loss on Tuesday night.
Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves for thew win.
Washington scored twice in each period to keep the pressure on the Avs and prevent any chance of a rally.
“The way he’s playing right now is a credit to him. Just him,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said. “He put in the time this summer, he was on the ice all the time, he came to camp in great shape, and he started the season the right way.”
The Avs offense was meager, and supplied by J.T. Compher, Darren Helm and Mikko Rantanen.
“I thought we got outcompeted in a lot of areas, so we gave up way too much,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “We were, I would say, cheating or gambling for offense instead of working the right way to create it, and they went the other way on us.”
Anthony Mantha and Nick Jensen also scored for the Caps.
“Three-on-one, I’m not not getting a shot,” Jensen said. “I feel like I was in pretty good position, so I’d rather at least throw it on net then flub a pass or have it get broken up. I had a pretty good look. It’s not often I’ll be passing up a pass to No. 8.”
Nic Dowd scored 38 seconds into the third period to really take any wind out of the Avs sails, his strike made it 5-2.
Alex Ovechkin scored late in the third period to ice the win.
Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves in the loss.
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