Jaden Schwartz scored a goal and added three assists, helping the Seattle Kraken end their six-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday night.
Calle Jarnkrok and Yanni Gourde each contributed a goal and an assist as Schwartz reached a career milestone of 401 points in Seattle’s first win since Nov. 4.
“Maybe because we’re sick and tired of losing games,” Jarnkrok said when asked about the team’s performance. “We got together as a group and discussed how we need to play. We went out there today, and we did it. But it’s got to be like this every game.”
Jared McCann and Adam Larsson also found the net for Seattle, while Philipp Grubauer made 37 saves.
Washington came into the game on a 6-0-1 streak and took an early lead just 3 1/2 minutes in with Tom Wilson’s slapshot. However, playing on consecutive nights, the Capitals appeared fatigued as the Kraken dominated a three-goal second period.
“The game got away from us in about 4 minutes,” Capitals center Nic Dowd said. “Then I thought we actually played really well the rest of the game, controlled the game. We had like 20 shots in the third period, something like that. We had chances to win that game if we hadn’t let it get away from us early.”
With Wilson assisting, Alex Ovechkin scored his 15th goal of the season for Washington.
Seattle equalized late in the first period while Evgeny Kuznetsov was serving a penalty for holding. Schwartz, who had five shots and high energy throughout, bounced a close shot off Vitek Vanecek’s stick, and McCann backhanded the rebound into the net at 15:58. Morgan Geekie also assisted.
The Kraken scored at least one power-play goal in four consecutive games.
Schwartz gave the Kraken a 2-1 lead by cleaning up Carson Soucy’s redirection at 6:17 in the second period. It was Seattle’s first lead in over 266 minutes of play.
Larsson extended the lead to 3-1 just 43 seconds later with a breakaway slapshot, assisted by Gourde and Jarnkrok.
Schwartz continued to influence the game, setting up Jarnkrok for a goal from the left faceoff circle about six minutes before the end of the second period. Schwartz’s final assist came as Gourde sealed the game with an empty-net goal.
“Schwartzie is really good below the circles in the offensive zone, and you saw him; he was in his office tonight,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “He produced and had a really good night offensively.”
Vanecek made 26 saves on 30 shots in his third-season loss.
Game notes
Capitals forward Conor Sheary (upper-body injury) and T.J. Oshie (lower-body injury) were sidelined and are listed as day-to-day after playing Saturday in San Jose. Sheary, who scored two goals against the Sharks, was scratched after warmups. Oshie, who was born in nearby Everett, had been out since Oct. 27 before Saturday’s game. Washington recalled forward Brett Leason from Hershey of the AHL and reassigned forward Garrett Pilon. Leason has three points in 10 games for the Caps this season. McCann has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in 13 games.
UP NEXT
- Capitals: Host Montreal on Wednesday.
- Kraken: Host Carolina on Wednesday.
