Capitals get revenge on Kraken

Last Thursday the Washington Capitals had a 2-0 lead on the Seattle Kraken but allowed three straight goals to lose in overtime. On Friday night at Capital One Arena, the exact opposite happened as the Caps scored four unanswered goals after trailing 1-0.

The win was the Caps third in a row to improve their record to 13-12-4, good for 30 points to put themselves one point behind second place in the Wild Card. The final score was 4-1.

Adam Larsson put the Kraken up 1-0 at 17:51 in the first period. 1-0 was the score after one with the Caps outshooting the Kraken 12-6.

At 5:20 of the second period Anthony Mantha tied it as his shot trickled through Philipp Grubauer and off other Kraken players. Matt Irwin and Alex Alexeyev each had their first assists of the season. For Mantha, it was his seventh goal of the season.

The Caps would get a power play at 13:15 after a cheap shot to Alex Alexeyev by Jamie Oleksiak. It took Alexeyev out of the game, putting the Caps down another defenseman. The goal was set up by Sonny Milano coming down the ice and finding an open Marcus Johansson for his sixth goal of the season. Alex Ovechkin had the secondary assist.

2-1 was the score after two with the Caps outshooting the Kraken 15-6 in the second period.

In the third the Caps were outshot 14-11 but had the edge in shots overall 38-26. Lars Eller and Alex Ovechkin put the game away with empty net goals.

Eller’s was assisted by Mantha while Evgeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson had the helpers for Ovechkin’s goal. It was Eller’s fifth of the season.

For Ovechkin it was his 16th goal of the season and 796th of his career as well as his 500th even strength goal. He’s now four away from 800. He’s also five away from Gordie Howe and 98 away from Wayne Gretzky.

Charlie Lindgren was outstanding as he made 25 saves. He stopped all four power play shots by the Kraken as they went 0 for 2 on the man advantage.

The Caps now hit the road for a Sunday night matchup with the Winnipeg Jets.