The Associated Press’s Jim Diamond
Tennessee’s Nashville. The Washington Capitals defeated the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Saturday night, with Ethen Frank scoring his first NHL goal and Alex Ovechkin recording a goal and an assist.
The Capitals also had goals from Andrew Mangiapane and Tom Wilson. The Capitals won their second straight game as Logan Thompson stopped 32 shots.
Juuse Saros made 12 saves and Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators, who have now dropped two straight games.
At 8:30 of the third period, Frank beat Saros with a wrist shot from the lower portion of the right faceoff circle to put the Capitals ahead 2-1. A day earlier, Frank had assisted in his NHL debut after catching a stretch pass from Matt Roy at the Nashville blue line and driving down the right side.
After blocking a shot and traveling the length of the ice, Ovechkin scored his career goal No. 873 with an empty-netter with 58 seconds remaining, and Mangiapane made it 3-1 with 5:06 left. Ovechkin needs 21 more goals to tie the NHL career record held by Wayne Gretzky.
At 9:03 in the second quarter, Wilson scored the first goal of the game.
With 3:46 left in the second, Forsberg knotted the score. Forsberg scored in back-to-back games after going 18 games without a goal.
Takeaways
Washington Capitals: The team’s winning run now stands at seven games (4-0-3).
Predators: Washington outscored Saros three times on 15 shots, while Nashville gave up a season-low 16 shots on goal.
Key moment
Thompson’s biggest stop of the game came less than a minute after Wilson gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead. He did this by making a sweeping glove save on Jonathan Marchessault from the left side during a 2-on-1 rush by the Predators.
Key stat
Wilson scored his team-high ninth man-advantage goal of the season on a power play. His team-high 19th power-play point came on Strome’s assist.
Up next
On Tuesday, the Predators host Vegas and the Capitals host Anaheim.
https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL is the AP NHL.
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