Kraken end six-game losing streak with win against Capitals

SEATTLE --Jaden Schwartz had a goal and three assists for the Seattle Kraken, who ended a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday.

Adam Larsson and Calle Jarnkrok each scored his first goal of the season for Seattle (5-12-1). Philipp Grubauer made 37 saves, including 22 in the third period.
"The streak, it's been tough," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "It's not a lot of fun. Our players, coming off last night's or two nights ago, a game that stinks (7-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday), that stays with you. The atmosphere in our building also stays with you. … To be able to come out tonight and do what we could to try to reward the people up there and, most importantly, take pride in our standard tonight, and that's really what happened."
Alex Ovechkin scored his 745th NHL goal for Washington (11-3-5), which was coming off a 4-0 win at the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and had its seven-game point streak end (6-0-1). Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves.
"The game got away from us in about four minutes," Capitals forward Nic Dowd said. "I thought we actually played really well the rest of the game and controlled the game. I think we had 20 shots in the third period, something like that. We had chances and I thought we had a chance to win that game if we hadn't let it get away from us."
Tom Wilson gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 3:34 of the first period, shooting blocker side on Grubauer from the right face-off circle after Evgeny Kuznetsov forced a turnover by Jeremy Lauzon below the goal line.
Jared McCann tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 15:58.

Schwartz gave Seattle a 2-1 lead during a delayed penalty at 6:17 of the second period. He scored near the right post after Colin Blackwell's pass deflected to him off Carson Soucy and Nick Jensen.
"We love [Schwartz'] competitiveness," Hakstol said. "I knew he was going to be playing some heavy minutes against a good line, but Schwartz is really good down below the circles in the offensive zone, and we saw that he was in his office tonight and he produced. He produced a really good night offensively."
Larsson scored 43 seconds later to extend the lead to 3-1 with a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Yanni Gourde at 7:00.
Jarnkrok then made it 4-1 at 13:51. After Schwartz deflected away a pass by Dennis Cholowski, Jarnkrok picked up the puck in the neutral zone, cut around Cholowski on a 2-on-1, and beat Vanecek blocker side from the slot.
"I'm glad to get the two points tonight," Jarnkrok said. "A really big difference was teamwork and getting back to the identity that we showed early on."
Ovechkin cut it to 4-2 at 3:09 of the third period with a shot that hit the glove of Grubauer and fluttered into the net.

The Capitals had a power play with 3:27 remaining before pulling Vanecek but couldn't get a shot past Grubauer. They finished 0-for-4 with the man-advantage.
"I thought we had a couple of chances to get one in there 6-on-5," Dowd said. "You know, games like back-to-backs, it's good to stay out of the box and you have to capitalize on our power play."
Gourde shot into an empty net at 19:31 for the 5-2 final.
NOTES:Schwartz's assist on Jarnkrok's goal was his 400th point (158 goals, 242 assists) in the NHL. He is the first Kraken player to score four points in a game. … Capitals forward T.J. Oshie was a late scratch. … Cholowski, a defenseman, was making his season debut. He was claimed off waivers by Washington on Oct. 14 after being selected by Seattle from the Detroit Red Wings during the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.