NHL Roundup: Hurricanes and Rangers continue winning form after Ovechkin scores

Washington Capitals 3-5 Seattle Kraken

41-year-old Washington Capitals legend Alexander Ovechkin recorded his 930th career goal and the first of his final season in the NHL as his team went on to lose to Seattle Kraken on Sunday evening.

Going into the match as big outsiders against a home side that only narrowly missed last season's Wild Card play-offs, Seattle opened the scoring in the seventh minute despite serving four penalty minutes in the opening exchanges through infractions from Ryker Evans (holding) and Chandler Stephenson (tripping). 

Evans inadvertently gave the puck away behind his own net with the Capitals pouncing on the error to combine for the great Ovechkin's first of the season.

Two goals five minutes apart put the Capitals ahead with only three minutes remaining in the first period, during which 36-year-old Kraken forward Jordan Eberle recorded his third goal of the season with a snap shot to level the game up 2-2 after one period. 

Frederick Gaudreau's fourth goal of the campaign was the only strike of the second period, and the 3-2 lead that the Kraken took into the final change lasted only 46 seconds when Washington's Boone Jenner immediately recovered a blocked shot of his own to tie up the game. 

All four Kraken lines would go on to score after Jared McCann returned in the third period to make it 4-3, shortly before Ryan Winterton pounced on a breakaway to extend the lead. 

Despite conceding within the first minute, Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord racked up 16 saves alone in the third period at a rate of .914 to help his team come up with their fourth win of the season, leaving them sat fourth in the Western Conference standings. 

New York Rangers 6-2 Vancouver Canucks

A run of four unanswered goals in less than 20 minutes saw New York Rangers run away with their fifth win of the season to move provisionally to the top of the NHL Eastern Conference, pending the result of Carolina Hurricanes' trip to Philadelphia later in the day. 

Rangers set the tone in the first minute of the game as an early shot on target from captain JT Miller was rebounded by Tye Kartye, and with goaltender Kevin Lankinen standing beyond his crease, Kartye had an almost entirely open goalmouth to aim at from close distance. 

A quick, deep shot from Jake DeBrusk in the 18th minute, shortly after Rangers' Mika Zibanejad served a two-minute penalty, took the game into the first break 1-1 despite the Canucks notching up 16 shot attempts to ten.

The Rangers' second and third lines combined to score two goals in the second period, Will Cuylle scoring his first of the year with a long-range bomb as Lankinen watched on helplessly without attempting a save. 

After Vancouver equalised with an unlikely shorthanded goal, Miller and Kartye again linked up just 90 seconds after to reclaim the lead; and when the Rangers scored a powerplay goal in the second minute of the third period after Vancouver went into the last change one-man short, the home side assumed control for the remainder of the game. 

New York scored three times from ten shots on target in the third period to condemn the Canucks to their fifth loss of the season as they conceded 5+ goals for a fourth time this season, with their goals against tally already standing at 35.

Philadelphia Flyers 1-4 Carolina Hurricanes

Despite not conceding during any of their eight penalty minutes, Philadelphia Flyers made some unwanted history on Sunday night when they recorded a franchise record seventh consecutive loss to start a new season.

Whilst it's not panic time yet for Rick Tocchet and his players, not least because the Flyers made the play-offs on the only other two occasions in which they lost six straight at the start of a new season, there must now be significant concern about their output of just eight goals scored in seven games. 

For a fourth consecutive game, they were shut out in the first period - this time keeping the score on level terms thanks to 11 of Joseph Woll's 26 saves for the match - and it took them more than 35 minutes to break through for their only goal of the match.

It came after Andrei Svechnikov and Shayne Gostisbehere scored three minutes apart in the middle minutes of the second period, Svechnikov picking out the top left corner with an inch-perfect shot and Sebastian Aho passing the ball across the goaltender to open up an angle for Gostisbehere to score into an open net.

Three minutes later, Aho extended his lead as the Hurricanes' most prolific points scorer by burying the Hurricanes' third goal in seven minutes, taking his tally to 11 (G6 A5), the equal-fourth most of the season behind Vegas' Jack Eichel (G3 A9) and Oilers Canadian pair Connor McDavid (G3 A10) and Evan Bouchard (G6 A6).

The Hurricanes won the shot count in every period, adding a fourth through Mark Jankowski taking advantage of a rebound falling to his feet to score for a fourth consecutive match.

With their second win over the Flyers this month and their fifth in a row against all opponents, the Hurricanes stayed ahead of New York Rangers to retain top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Aaron Murphy has been with Flashscore since 2018 and, as the founding editor of the Australian newsdesk, has reported on-site at several major events in Melbourne including the Australian Open, State of Origin, A-League, NBL and international cricket. You can read his pieces here and contact him on X or LinkedIn.