In Washington, DC, Conor Sheary hit for a pair of goals and the Capitals defeated the visiting Seattle Kraken, 5-2, on Saturday.
Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves in the Washington win.
The Caps improved to 30-18-9.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s more fun to win, especially on home ice, so no complaints there,” Washington forward Tom Wilson (goal) said. “It was a fun game. The building was loud. We were a little slow to start but we found our feet and guys pulled together and a win’s a win.”
Joonas Donskoi and Colin Blackwell were the Seattle goal scorers.
“We didn’t get enough in the first two (power plays),” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “The third period, we had some looks and a little bit of volume, but we weren’t able to generate anything that was real dangerous. They won the specialty teams tonight and, scorewise, that was the difference in the game.”
The Kraken dropped to 17-35-5.
“I think we’ve had trouble scoring goals this year, and that’s one of the things we’ve been talking about all year, getting to the net and trying to find those rebounds,” Donskoi said. “That’s an area we can, for sure, build on.”
Sheary’s second goal of the game was into an an empty net for his 1ooth career NHL marker.
“It’s kind of a weird way to get your 100th (goal), but I’ll take it,” Sheary said. “I think sometimes those milestones can get in your head a little bit, so to get a nice, easy one was probably maybe the best way to do it and I can put it behind me and move forward.”
Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov also scored for the Caps.
Chris Driedger made 20 saves in the Kraken loss.
“I wasn’t worried about it going downhill,” Hakstol said. “This group hasn’t gone downhill. They haven’t gone away. I liked the response. I really liked our work ethic throughout the entire 60 minutes.”
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