Washington Capitals center Michael Latta (No 46) brings the puck around the San Jose Sharks goal in front of defenseman Matt Irwin during the first period at SAP Center at San Jose.
Agencies/San Jose
Joel Ward scored with 2:18 remaining in overtime to lift the Washington Capitals past the San Jose Sharks 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Jay Beagle scored twice and John Carlson and Troy Brouwer also scored for the Capitals, who have won four of their last five.
Brent Burns scored twice, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton also got goals as the Sharks lost their third straight and fifth in six games. Burns scored his goals within 22 seconds of the second period.
Braden Holtby, with a 0.88 GAA over his last five, saved 26 of 30 shots for Washington. Antti Niemi stopped 28 of 33 shots.
Beagle connected on a breakaway, beating Niemi to the far post. Carlson scored the go-ahead goal a few minutes later, with an assist from Marcus Johansson.
Then Thornton got his 12th goal a minute later to tie the score at 4. He found an opening at the near post after taking a cross-ice pass from Joe Pavelski.
Burns, who has four goals and four assists in 10 career games against the Capitals, fired a shot past Holtby 21 seconds into the second period on a power play. Thornton won the puck off the boards and got it to Burns.
Patrick Marleau controlled the ensuing faceoff and got the puck to Burns, whose shot glanced of Holtby’s shoulder pads and into the net.
Brouwer’s power-play midway through the second period tied the game at 2. Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s co-leader in goals scored, passed to the far post and Brouwer redirected it in.Ovechkin has 31 points over his past 28 games (21 goals, 10 assists), getting points in 20 of them.
Couture scored the go-ahead goal with just over five minutes left in the second, grabbing Matt Nieto’s missed shot and scoring on a wraparound.
Washington had opened the scoring with just under five minutes to play in the first period. Michael Latta fished the puck out from behind the net and passed to Brooks Orpik, whose shot bounced off Matt Tennyson’s skates and directly to Beagle.
The Capitals won a shootout in San Jose last year to end a 12-game losing streak here.
Blake Comeau had a goal and an assist in his return from a 20-game absence as the Pittsburgh Penguins shook their scoring slump and cooled off the Detroit Red Wings.
Comeau was activated from the injured reserve list before the game after not playing since Dec. 22 because of a wrist injury.
Patric Hornqvist also had a goal and assist for the Penguins (31-15-8), who won for the third time in four games. David Perron and center Nick Spaling scored Pittsburgh’s other goals.
Detroit (31-13-9) lost for the just the second time in its last 12 games as rookie goaltender Petr Mrazek had a rare poor outing. He had started each of the previous 10 games while starter Jimmy Howard sat out with a groin injury.
Daniel Sedin scored two goals, including the winner at 1:20 in overtime, as the Vancouver Canucks eeked out a victory over the struggling Chicago Blackhawks.
Sedin scored the Canucks’ last two goals of the game, but none was more important than the winning wrist shot in front of Chicago goalie Corey Crawford that stopped a Blackhawks rally from a 4-2 deficit early in the third period.
The Canucks (30-20-3) have now won four of their last eight games. Despite two goals by Marian Hossa, Chicago (33-18-4) has started its season-high, eight-game homestand with consecutive losses, both coming in overtime or the shootout.
