Beauvillier’s tiebreaking goal sends Capitals past Kings 3-1, into 1st place with 5th straight win

LOS ANGELES AP Anthony Beauvillier scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Logan Thompson made saves in the Washington Capitals fifth straight preeminence - over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night Tom Wilson scored his th goal and Alex Ovechkin had two assists for the Caps whose - - surge since mid-November has moved them into a first-place tie atop the Metropolitan Division with Carolina which has two games in hand Aliaksei Protas added an empty-net goal for Washington which opened a California road trip featuring three games in four nights by sweeping its season series with Los Angeles Adrian Kempe scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped shots for the Kings who have lost five of seven Los Angeles had earned points in five straight games before failing to mount much critical offense against Thompson and the Caps Wilson opened the scoring when he tapped in a puck sent into the crease by Ryan Leonard during a power play late in the first period Wilson has six power-play goals this season while the rest of the Washington roster has combined for seven goals on one of the NHL s worst man-advantage units The Kings evened it when they burned the Caps in transition early in the second period with captain Anze Kopitar feeding Kempe for his ninth goal The million Swedish forward scored in his second straight competition after getting just one goal in his previous games Beauvillier created his own goal when he blocked a shot in the dying seconds of a Los Angeles power play Ovechkin came out of the box and created an odd-man rush with the loose puck and Connor McMichael fed Beauvillier for the tap-in on his sixth goal The Capitals all lined up after the championship to shake hands with Kopitar who is retiring after this season Up next Capitals At San Jose on Wednesday Kings Host Chicago on Thursday AP NHL https apnews com NHL Source