Connor McMichael had two goals, Jakub Vrana and Jakob Chychrun also scored, and the Washington Capitals beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 in Denver on Friday night.
Rasmus Sandin scored an empty-net goal, Pierre Luc-Dubois had two assists and Charlie Lindgren turned away 17 shots for Washington. Alex Ovechkin did not score and sits at 863 career goals, 31 behind Wayne Gretzky.
Parker Kelly had a goal and an assist and Nikolai Kovalenko also scored for Colorado, which had its three-game winning streak stopped. Justus Annunen allowed three goals on six shots before being pulled in favor of Trent Miner, who made his NHL debut. Miner turned away 12 shots.
The Avalanche returned three players to the active roster and bolstered their depth. Valeri Nichushkin was reinstated from a six-month suspension under the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program
Nichushkin registered one shot on goal in 19:27 of ice time while playing on the second line with Casey Mittelstadt and Jonathan Drouin.
Drouin and Miles Wood were activated from the injured list.
Drouin had been out since suffering an upper-body injury on opening night and Wood last played Oct. 28, also with an upper-body injury.
Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev was scratched with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day.
Kelly’s first goal of the season gave Colorado a 1-0 lead two minutes into the game but the Avalanche took a tripping minor 39 seconds later.
Vrana cashed in when he scored his third goal of the season at 4:25 on Washington’s first shot of the night. Just 3:23 later, McMichael made it 2-1 on the Capitals’ second shot of the night.
McMichael gave Washington a 3-1 lead 1:53 into the second period when he stole Sam Girard’s pass attempt out of the zone, skated in on Annunen and beat him with a backhander.
It was his 12th of the season and ended Annunen’s night.
Kovalenko answered at 4:03 of the second period with his third goal of the season but Chychrun made it 4-2 at 9:21, his fourth of the season.
–Field Level Media