Capitals score 8 in victory against Sharks

SAN JOSE --Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, and Dylan Strome had a goal and two assists for the Washington Capitals in an 8-3 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.

Craig Smith scored his first two goals since being acquired on Feb. 23, and Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves for the Capitals (31-27-6), who have won three of four after losing six straight.
Washington is three points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have played two fewer games, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"I thought the guys that jumped in had a really nice game," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "I think the response after the first period, guys came out and played a much better brand of hockey and dug in and chipped away at it and were able to score some goals in the second and get some life after that."

Rasmus Sandin, who was acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday for defenseman Erik Gustafsson and a first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, had three assists.
"I thought I was awful in the first period," Sandin said. "I had no idea what I was doing out there sometimes. But I think as a team we stepped up in the second and third period. We played really well. It's a lot of fun out there and nice to get the win."
Alexander Barabanov and Tomas Hertl scored, Erik Karlsson had two assists, and William Eklund had an assist in his season debut for the Sharks (18-33-12), who lost their fifth straight. Kaapo Kahkonen made 22 saves.
"Things unraveled, and it's really unfortunate because I really liked our approach to the game," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "I thought we played a really good first period and I thought it continued throughout the second, and then it just got away from us."

Hertl put the Sharks ahead 1-0 at 12:03 of the first period when he beat T.J. Oshie down the ice and scored on his own rebound attempt.
Barabanov made it 2-0 at 15:30 after Logan Couture set him up from behind Washington's net.
Smith cut it to 2-1 at 8:46 from the right face-off circle before Nicolas Aube-Kubel tied it 2-2 at 11:30.
Matt Irwin then put Washington ahead 3-2 at 15:28 with his first goal of the season.
"We just let them in," Hertl said. "They didn't do anything different, we just let them in and they scored three quick goals. We just let them play. After [that] we fell apart, and the third was tough to watch. That just can't happen anymore."
Smith extended it to 4-2 at 19:02. After initially being ruled no goal because of a hand deflection, the call was overturned after a video determined that the puck deflected in off Smith's stick handle.
"I did just about everything I could to get that in," Smith said. "It's hard to score in this league. Those are big goals around the net, especially for us right now."

Oshie pushed the lead to 5-2 at 5:50 of the third period on a power play. He scored on a rebound with Kahkonen was still recovering from stopping a shot from Ovechkin.
Nico Sturm made it 5-3 at 9:02, and Ovechkin scored an unassisted goal at 9:11 to make it 6-3.
Ovechkin scored his second on a one-timer to make it 7-3 at 16:05, and Strome scored at 17:30 for the 8-3 final.