Washington, DC – This second stop of a five-city Kraken road trip was likely one most folks had quietly written off when the schedule was first released.
Capital One Arena has rarely gone easy for the Kraken, never mind the Washington Capitals beefing up tremendously this past summer hoping to land another Stanley Cup title before all-time NHL goals leader Alex Ovechkin retires. But the Kraken served notice early in Sunday’s 5-3 victory that they weren’t about to roll over and carried a fast-skating, hard checking effort all the way through.
Jared McCann scored the go-ahead goal for the Kraken with 5:27 remaining in regulation time, taking a Brandon Montour pass in the slot and snapping it past goalie Logan Thompson. Ryan Winterton then scored his first goal of the season on a breakaway with under three minutes to play as the Kraken won for only the second time in six overall games in this building since the franchise’s inception.
Freddy Gaudreau had scored a go-ahead Kraken marker roughly 13 minutes into the middle period off strong forechecking work by Ben Meyers and Winterton. Kaapo Kakko and Jordan Eberle also scored for the Kraken, now 4-2-0 after two wins in two tries on a trip that resumes Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
McCann’s goal was his second of the season to go with a team-high seven points.
Gaudreau now has a team-leading four goals already for the Kraken after scoring only seven last season. The team’s fourth line had been the story of this road trip’s opening game in Detroit, with Gaudreau scoring twice, Meyers picking up three points and Winterton also notching a pair of assists.
The Kraken led by Gaudreau’s goal two periods in, but Boone Jenner, one of a number of off-season pickups by the home side, scored a tying marker 46 seconds into the third by picking up his own rebound and beating Joey Daccord in close. But Daccord would later make an outstanding save off Jenner at the edge of his crease with just under nine minutes to go in regulation to keep it tied.
The Kraken started this game off far better than two nights prior in Detroit when the Red Wings unleashed a 17-shot, first period barrage that goalie Philipp Grubauer somehow close. This time around, the Caps had only two shots on Daccord the opening half period while the Kraken had the lead after Kakko converted a long rebound of a Vince Dunn point blast.
But the Caps have an upgraded, explosive offense and showed why on a tying three-way passing sequence that led to a de facto open net for Jordan Kyrou to notch his first goal for his new team. Washington then regained the lead when a Ryker Evans clearance attempt was stolen by Ilya Protas and fed out front to Ovechkin for his all-time leading 930thcareer goal.
The Caps seemed poised to take that lead to intermission. But things changed when Chandler Stephenson moved the puck forward in the offensive zone and slid a backhanded pass to Eberle at the lip of the crease. Eberle had three cracks at the puck before finally jamming it by goalie Logan Thompson to tie it 2-2 only 9.3 seconds before the period’s end.
That goal revived the Kraken as they came out strong in the middle period, handcuffing the Capitals defensively and then capitalizing on their fourth line speed as Meyers beat a defender to a puck in behind Washington’s net. Meyers shoveled it back out and Winterton – right behind him at the side of the net – dished it to an incoming Gaudreau, who deked Thompson for the go-ahead goal.
The Kraken forechecking was aggressive throughout, starting on the sequence leading to Kakko’s opening goal as Berkly Catton stole a puck and carried it in for a solid scoring chance. Washington failed to clear the zone before Adam Larsson got the puck over to Dunn for his shot ahead of Kakko slotting home the rebound.
