Red Wings hand Capitals 5th straight loss

WASHINGTON -- Pius Suter scored two goals for the Detroit Red Wings, who handed the Washington Capitals their fifth straight loss with a 3-1 win at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.

Robert Hagg scored his first goal of the season for the Red Wings (27-21-8), who are 6-1-0 in their past seven games. Ville Husso made 26 saves, including 15 in the third period.
"We just go day by day right now," Husso said. "We know we can win in this league, and we have the team that can win. It's just day by day, have fun and move on."

Tom Wilson scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 22 saves for the Capitals (28-25-6), who were playing their fourth straight game without Alex Ovechkin, who has been away from the team following the death of his father, Mikhail.
Washington has not led at any point during its five-game losing streak, during which it has been outscored 20-8.
"There's three or four things where if you could go back and do something different, you would, and it might be a tighter game, a closer game," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "But we've still got to find a way to put the puck in the net. It's not falling for us right now."

Hagg gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 10:16 of the first period, taking a pass from Tyler Bertuzzi and scoring five-hole from above the face-off circles.
"Whenever you're chasing games, it's a lot harder," Kuemper said. "Teams can be more patient and wait for your mistakes, and it's hard to score against teams that are up and defending hard."
Suter made it 2-0 at 14:22, electing to shoot glove side from the left circle on a 2-on-1 while short-handed.
The goal came after Dylan Larkin was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for cross-checking T.J. Oshie in the face at 12:43.
"Obviously, not ideal losing [Larkin] early on (and) killing seven minutes of the first 22, 23 minutes, but I thought our guys managed it extremely well," Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. "We needed a complete effort from everyone. We needed everyone to step up even more, and they did that and got ourselves a good road win."

On the same power play, Wilson cut it to 2-1 at 15:57 when he redirected Erik Gustafsson's slap shot in the slot.
"I think the guys came together today and worked hard, but it's not easy to win in this league," Wilson said. "We've got to find a way here, and there's a good chunk of games left but … we've got to turn this around right now, start putting together some wins."
Suter pushed it to 3-1 at 6:24 of the third period, scoring blocker side from the slot after Evgeny Kuznetsov whiffed on a clearing attempt.
Suter has scored in three straight and has five goals in his past five games.
"Puck was bouncing around a little bit, and I think a great screen by [Oskar Sundqvist], and I just had to pick a corner," Suter said.
NOTES: Red Wings forward Jakub Vrana had two shots and was plus-1 in 11:31 of ice time in his first game since Oct. 15. Vrana, who was recalled from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Feb. 14, was reinstated from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program on Dec. 16. … Red Wings forward Robby Fabbri went to the locker room after blocking a shot late in the third period. There was no update. … Washington had not lost five straight in regulation since Jan. 15-24, 2014. … Capitals forward Anthony Mantha left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury. There was no update.