Dowd has goal, assist for Capitals in win against Kraken

WASHINGTON -- Nic Dowd had a goal and an assist in the Washington Capitals' 4-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.

Ryan Leonard scored in his second consecutive game for the Capitals (5-2-0), who have won five of their past six games and bounced back from a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday in which they trailed 4-0. Aliaksei Protas had two assists, and Logan Thompson made 18 saves.

“I liked our start a lot,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “We challenged our group a little bit and the guys knew just based on what went on on Sunday that we wanted to have a better start. It was a little bit sloppy at times, but the first period was good, the second period was even better.”

Washington forward Alex Ovechkin had an assist, but remains two goals from 900 in his NHL career.

Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken (3-2-2), who lost 5-2 at the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday and have dropped four of the first five games (1-2-2) on their six-game road trip. Matt Murray, signed as a free agent on July 1, made 30 saves in his Kraken debut.

“We inflicted pain on ourselves by turning pucks over and not making plays quick enough certainly early on in the game,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “You can’t do that. We have to be better than that.”

Dowd gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 8:30 of the first period. Brandon Duhaime carried down the right side and passed to John Carlson in the slot. Carlson fed a wide-open Dowd for the tap-in near the right post.

“They’re a hard team to play against and they made it difficult on me in the first period,” Murray said. “They were throwing everything at the net. Just causing chaos, getting bodies there and that makes it even more difficult to find your timing, so I just felt a little bit off.”

Leonard made it 2-0 when he scored 25 seconds into the second period on a snap shot from the high slot after Protas poked the puck out from behind the goal line.

“It was just a quick transition play,” Leonard said. “I was in the middle and then passed it up to ‘Pro.’ It wasn’t the best of passes, and then he chased it down pretty good and used that long reach to his advantage and got it to me in the slot.”

Jakob Chychrun, joining the first power-play unit for the first time this season, increased the lead to 3-0 at 1:33, scoring on a snap shot into the top right corner from the right circle off a pass from Ovechkin.

“That was the first time we rolled that unit, so it was nice to get out there and it felt like we were zipping it well and had some good movement,” Chychrun said. “It’s nice to kind of get some confidence with it and try to build off that from tonight.”

The Capitals outshot the Kraken 16-3 in the second period.

Schwartz pulled Seattle within 3-1 at 3:50 of the third period. Ben Myers’ shot caromed off the end boards and out to Schwartz, who scored from the bottom of the right circle.

Tom Wilson scored into an empty net at 19:10 for the 4-1 final.

“I thought in the third we had a pretty good push,” Seattle forward Jordan Eberle said. “We had a chance to make it 3-2. I liked the push back. I like the effort, but there’s definitely some things we need to clean up.”

NOTES: Leonard (20 years, 273 days) became the youngest Capitals player to score in consecutive games since Nicklas Backstrom (March 3-5, 2008 at 20 years, 103 days). …The Capitals have scored a power-play goal in four consecutive games after not scoring on the power play in their first three games. … Dylan Strome (assist) has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in a four-game point streak. ... Wilson (eight points; three goals, five assists) and Carlson (four points; one goal, three assists) each also extended their point streaks to four games. … Seattle forward Mason Marchment did not play and is day-to-day with a lower body injury. … The Kraken are 0-2-0 in back-to-back games this season after finishing 0-12-0 in back-to-back games last season.