Artturi Lehkonen, Alex Newhook and Andrew Cogliano scored goals, Alexandar Georgiev had 37 saves and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Denver on Tuesday night.
Logan O’Connor had two assists for Colorado, which has won six straight despite Cale Makar missing his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury.
The victory gave Avalanche coach Jared Bednar 266 regular-season wins, the most in franchise history.
Alex Ovechkin and Conor Sheary scored for Washington, and Darcy Kuemper turned away 23 shots against his former team. The Capitals played without T.J. Oshie, who was back in Washington D.C. to be with his wife for the birth of their fourth child.
Washington defenseman Tom Wilson left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot and did not return.
Colorado took the early lead when Nathan MacKinnon, as he was falling forward, passed the puck to Lehkonen as the latter skated to the front of the net. Lehkonen beat Kuemper to make it 1-0 at 8:57 of the first period.
It was his 15th goal of the season.
The Avalanche added to their lead early in the second period when Cogliano redirected a shot by Kurtis MacDermid by Kuemper at 2:04, his eighth goal of the season.
The Capitals finally broke through soon after for their first goal in four-plus periods against Colorado.
Anthony Mantha had the puck along the boards and sent a pass to Martin Fehervary at the point. Fehervary’s one-timer was tipped by Sheary at 4:48. It was his 12th of the season.
Newhook made it 3-1 later in the second when O’Connor fed him at center ice as he skated through the neutral zone, and his wrister beat Kuemper to the far side at 15:39. It was Newhook’s 11th goal of the season.
Ovechkin cut the deficit to one when his slapshot from the left circle beat Georgiev on the short side at 9:44 of the third period. It was his 31st of the season and 811th of his career.
Kuemper came off for an extra skater with 2:02 left but Washington couldn’t get the equalizer.
–Field Level Media
