Kraken overcome Ovechkin’s first goal of season, edge Capitals

WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season, but Jared McCann broke a tie at 14:33 of the third period for the Seattle Kraken in a 5-3 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Sunday.

McCann gave the Kraken a 4-3 lead after he entered the zone, eluded defenseman Timothy Liljegren and beat Logan Thompson with a low wrist shot. Ryan Winterton then scored on a breakaway at 17:20 for the 5-3 final.

“I think there was some pretty good commitment all over the place tonight,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “We had a lot of blocked shots and stuff like that. It was a hard-fought game and our guys did a good job of finding a way to win.”

Frederick Gaudreau scored his third goal in two games and added an assist, and Winterton also had an assist for the Kraken (4-2-0), who have won two in a row to begin a five-game road trip. Ben Meyers had two assists, and Joey Daccord made 33 saves, including 17 in the third period.

“I thought it was just a really good hockey game,” Meyers said. “Both teams played really well. Joey stood on his head a little bit and we scored five, and that was enough.”

Jordan Kyrou scored his first goal as a member of the Capitals (3-2-0), who had won two straight. Thompson made 22 saves.

“We make a poor mistake at the end there to give up the game-winner, but we’re just making too many mistakes, a lot of mistakes with the puck, poor decisions,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “We’ve just got to get to work on being a smarter team because that was not good.”

Kaapo Kakko gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 6:06 of the first period. Thompson made the save on Vince Dunn’s point shot, but the rebound went to Kakko in the bottom of the right circle, and he scored between Thompson’s left skate and the post.

Kyrou, acquired from the St. Louis Blues on June 23, tied it 1-1 at 11:41 when he took a cross-ice pass from Cole Hutson and scored from the bottom of the left circle.

Ovechkin gave Washington a 2-1 lead at 16:47. Seattle defenseman Ryker Evans turned the puck over behind the net and Ilya Protas passed in front to Ovechkin, who wristed it past Daccord.

“The training camp didn't go right way that I wanted it to, but through the games you're going to find your touches, you're going to find the game rhythm,” said Ovechkin, who didn’t play in the preseason because of a lower-body injury. “I think the last two games, we had a nice chance to score, and we did.”

Jordan Eberle tied it 2-2 at 19:49, knocking home his own rebound at the back post after Chandler Stephenson got the initial shot on net.

“It was a big goal at the end of a period where we were obviously losing and we find a way to tie it up,” Eberle said.

Gaudreau put the Kraken back ahead 3-2 at 13:24 of the second period after he took a pass in front from Winterton, deked around Thompson and slid the puck home.

Boone Jenner scored 46 seconds into the third period to tie it 3-3 when he kept the puck in at the blue line and then knocked in his own rebound in front.

“I think, just throughout, we didn't play to our strengths and our game consistently throughout the 60 (minutes),” Jenner said. “There were times where we were on it and had the pressure on them, but too much where we weren't taking care of the puck and giving them chances.”

NOTES: It was Ovechkin's first career goal against Joey Daccord, the NHL-record 190th different goaltender he has scored on (12 more than Jaromir Jagr’s 178). … McCann has four points (two goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak. … Meyers has a goal and four assists in his past two games. … Capitals forward Ryan Leonard had an assist for his 50th NHL point (23 goals, 27 assists) in 89 games, becoming the fastest Capitals skater to record his first 50 NHL points since Nicklas Backstrom (63 games in 2007-08).