Aliaksei Protas scored twice for the Washington Capitals in a 3-1 win against the visiting Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.
Jakub Vrana scored the eventual game-winning goal, Pierre-Luc Dubois had two assists and Logan Thompson made 25 saves for the Capitals, who have won 10 of their past 13 (10-2-1).
Kevin Fiala scored for the Kings, who have lost two straight (0-1-1) for the first time since Nov. 11-13. David Rittich made 18 saves.
After a slow start for both sides, Washington started to pick up the pace midway through the first period.
Shortly after Rittich made a pair of stops on Ivan Miroshnichenko and John Carlson, Protas gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead. Alex Turcotte’s clearing attempt along the right wall hit Connor McMichael’s skate and deflected over to Dubois. The center pushed a short feed up to Protas, who took it to the front of the net and snapped it stick side on Rittich at 10:20.
Fiala snapped the Kings’ 0-for-10 drought on the power play to tie it at 1-all at 4:10 of the second period. He took a pass from Brandt Clarke at the top of the right circle, and after a quick back-and-forth with Adrian Kempe, one-timed a snap shot short side by Thompson’s left arm.
Vrana put Washington back in front on the power play at 14:18. Dubois collected Warren Foegele’s clearing attempt at the blue line and fed Vrana for a snap shot from above the slot that went in off the left post to put the hosts ahead 2-1.
The Kings and Capitals traded chances in the third period.
Alex Laferriere sent Fiala in on a breakaway less than a minute in, but Fiala missed high as defenseman Rasmus Sandin pressured him from behind.
Miroshnichenko’s snap shot off a feed from Nic Dowd on the doorstep off the rush hit the crossbar and stayed out at the five-minute mark.
A few minutes later, Thompson denied Laferriere from the right circle on a rush, getting his left shoulder up to deflect it away.
Protas scored an empty-net goal at 19:06 to seal the win.
–Field Level Media
