Alex Ovechkin scored his 875th career goal, an empty-netter with 3:28 remaining, as the streaking Washington Capitals defeated the host Seattle Kraken 3-0 on Thursday.
Ovechkin logged his 22nd goal in 32 games this season — he missed 16 games with a broken leg — as he chases Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 career goals.
Aliaksei Protas and Ethen Frank also tallied for the NHL-leading Capitals, who won their sixth consecutive game and extended their points streak to 12 games (9-0-3). Goaltender Charlie Lindgren, making his first start since Jan. 10, having recovered from an upper-body injury, made 22 saves for his first shutout of the season.
Seattle’s Joey Daccord was spectacular in stopping 29 of 31 shots, including several breakaways, but the Kraken had their two-game winning streak end.
The Capitals outshot Seattle 15-9 in a scoreless first period. It appeared Washington had taken the lead about four minutes in on a shot by Martin Fehervary, but the Kraken challenged the call and a video review determined the play was offside.
Washington broke the scoreless tie at 4:36 of the second when Protas increased his career-high goal total with his 20th of the season.
The Capitals worked the puck to Protas near the left post, and Daccord made a pokecheck with his stick to interrupt the shot. The puck came off the ice and hit Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn in the chest and ricocheted toward the net. Daccord tried to glove the puck out of mid-air and pull it to his chest, but the puck slipped out the end of his glove and trickled over the goal line.
The Capitals extended their advantage to 2-0 at 18:05 of the second. Daccord stopped a breakaway by Frank, but the forward batted the rebound past the sprawling goaltender.
Kraken forward Chander Stephenson took a slap shot off his left hand with about 7 1/2 minutes left in the second period and immediately headed for the locker room. Stephenson returned to the bench late in the second period but didn’t appear again in the game.
Stephenson and Kraken teammates Andre Burakovsky and Philipp Grubauer played on Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup-winning team.
–Field Level Media
