Capitals score eight on Sharks

The Washington Capitals gave up the first two goals to the San Jose Sharks, making everyone think it was going to be another one of those games. But then the Caps outscored them 7-1 the rest of the way to win 8-3.

The Sharks struck first for the first two goals of the game to take a 2-0 lead after one. Those came from Tomas Hertl at 12:03 on the power play and Alexander Barbanov at 15:30. They outshot the Caps 20-5.

Craig Smith scored his first goal as a member of the Capitals at 8:46 which was assisted by Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano. Nicolas Aube-Kubel tied it at 11:30 for his third goal of the season which was assisted by Conor Sheary and Nic Dowd.

Matt Irwin gave the Caps the lead with his first goal of the season at 15:28 which was assisted by Gabriel Carlsson and Aube-Kubel. Smith added his second of the game and sixth of the year at 19:02 which was assisted by Rasmus Sandin and Strome. 4-2 was the score after two with the Caps outshooting the Sharks 15-9.

The Caps added to their lead in the third. T.J. Oshie scored on the power play for his 16th of the season which was assisted by Alex Ovechkin and Sandin. Nico Sturm got one back at 9:02 but that two goal deficit would be as close as the Sharks would get.

Ovechkin then scored at 9:11 which was assisted by Tom Wilson and Carlsson. Then Sandin found Vincent Iorio who was making his NHL debut. The Caps first pick in the 2021 draft then found Ovechkin for his 35th of the season. For Ovechkin it’s 815 goals in his career. He’s now 79 from Wayne Gretzky.

Strome capped off the scoring at 17:30 with Milano having the assist. The Caps were outshot 12-10 in the third and 41-30 overall. Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves.

The Caps take on the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night.