A pair of second-period goals in 68 seconds carried the Washington Capitals to a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night. Ryan Leonard’s goal provided Washington with a 2-0 advantage early in the second frame, before Jakob Chychrun’s snipe above the left glove hand of Matt Murray just 1:08 later provided too much scoring for Seattle to overcome. After last night’s 5-2 loss in Philadelphia, it was always going to be a tough matchup rolling into Washington, D.C. to play the Capitals less than 24 hours later.
Game Recap
A rested Capitals seized the opportunity provided by the NHL schedulers by pounding the puck towards the road-weary Kraken net in the first period. Washington finished the period with an 11-6 shot advantage, alongside a one-goal lead on the scoreboard after 20 minutes. Nic Dowd scored his first goal of the season at the 8:30 mark after tipping home a perfect pass from John Carlson into a vacant net behind Murray for a 1-0 Washington lead.
Leonard’s goal 25 seconds into the middle frame doubled the Washington advantage, 2-0. The Capitals’ rookie benefited from Aliaksei Protas tracking down a loose puck at the side of the net and batting it towards the slot and a No. 9 Capitals jersey, who wasted little time in snapping the puck past the Kraken netminder before most fans settled back into their seats after the first intermission.
A few seconds later, Seattle’s Ryan Lindgren was whistled for tripping, putting the Capitals back on the power play. After some solid puck movement by Washington on the outside of the Kraken penalty-killing box defense, winger Alex Ovechkin swung the puck to the top of the right circle to Chychrun for a 3-0 lead after the Washington blueliner whipped a puck past the ear of Murray and into the top corner of the net.
Seattle responded early in the third period with their first goal of the contest. Defenseman Ben Meyers lasered a low, hard shot just outside of the left post, causing the puck to ricochet off the back boards and right onto the tape of Jaden Schwartz at the bottom of the right circle. The 33-year-old forward snapped the puck past Logan Thompson to ruin the shutout with 16:10 remaining in regulation.
The Kraken attempted to rally with eight shots in the third period, but the multi-goal deficit entering the final frame was too much to overcome against the Capitals. Tom Wilson netted his fourth goal of the season into the empty net with 50 seconds left in regulation to finalize the scoring in the 4-1 Washington victory.
The Capitals closed their four-game homestand with a 3-1 record and improved their overall record to 5-2-0 on the 2025-26 campaign. Washington returns to action on Friday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Seattle watched their record fall to 4-2-2 after dropping a pair of games in regulation to Eastern Conference foes over the past 48 hours. The Kraken are scheduled to wrap up a six-game road trip with a contest against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday evening.
