Vancouver Canucks Defeats Washington Capitals, Ending Their Win Streak

VANCOUVER — Quinn Hughes scored twice, leading the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-1 victory over the NHL-leading Washington Capitals at Rogers Arena on Saturday, ending the Capitals’ six-game win streak. Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves, and Filip Hronek recorded two assists for the Canucks (21-17-10), who broke a two-game losing streak and achieved their second win in the last six games (2-4-0), along with three wins in their past 11 (3-6-2).

“It’s massive, just because how we’ve been playing hasn’t been good enough,” Hughes said. “To come out here against a really good team and play as well as we did is a positive sign. However, we need to find a way to be consistent.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored for the Capitals (33-11-5) in the third period, while Charlie Lindgren made 23 saves. This loss marked Washington’s first regulation defeat of 2025, snapping a streak of 12 consecutive games with points (9-0-3) since their last regulation loss on December 29, the longest point streak in the NHL this season.

“Playing against the top team, the defensemen did a great job in front of me, allowing me to see the pucks,” Lankinen said. “Quinn took over the game and showed what a great leader he is by stepping up in situations like this. So it was huge.”

Alex Ovechkin had a game-high seven shots but could not beat Lankinen, leaving him with 875 career goals—20 goals short of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894.

“I think we had pretty good chances,” Ovechkin said. “The goalie played well; you could see at the end that we just missed our execution. The puck was bobbling and bouncing, but it was a good battle. We fought till the end.”

Hughes opened the scoring for the Canucks at 12:23 of the first period, just one minute after Lars Eller hit the post on a backdoor tap-in attempt and missed two chances to score with a bouncing puck in front of an open net. Hughes received a pass from Nils Hoglander in the right corner, skated into the left point, and made a move around Brandon Duhaime into the slot, backhanding a shot from the right hash mark over Lindgren’s glove.

“I noticed they were expecting me to push it to the outside on my forehand, so I just took the ice they gave me,” Hughes explained. “A couple of times I had to spin back because they were trying to take the outside away, but I’m fine with that. I’ve been working on my backhand and my movement across the ice over the last couple of years.”

Hughes scored again at 1:24 of the second period, skating backwards across the blue line from left to right before firing a wrist shot through traffic and past Lindgren’s blocker.

“I was trying to get the puck past the first layer of defenders,” Hughes said. “I saw Elias Pettersson popping high, so I knew he had a chance to tip it or screen the goalie. You have to give yourself a chance— with all the traffic in front, if I can get it past that first guy, those wrist shots are hard for the goalie to see.”

During this game, Hughes extended his point streak to five games with seven points (five goals and two assists), bringing his career NHL total to 57 goals. He surpassed both Kevin Bieksa and Rick Lanz, moving into a tie with Ed Jovanovski for the sixth-most goals scored by a Canucks defenseman.

“I’m extremely impressed,” Lankinen said of Hughes. “Playing against him in the past few years was one thing, but now seeing how he drags guys along and takes over games is remarkable. I’m really happy to be witnessing that from the same side.”

Capitals coach Spencer Carbery commended the Canucks for creating traffic in front of Lindgren, particularly by Pettersson and Linus Karlsson on the first goal. He noted his team’s failure to do the same in front of Lankinen early in the game.

Washington made it a point to focus on this in the third period, resulting in Dubois’ goal at 12:31. He tapped in a loose puck after Aliaksei Protas knocked a rebound away from Lankinen, who was attempting to cover it with his glove against his pad.

“Against a team that defends really hard and is well-structured and physical, there isn’t a lot of space,” Carbery said. “We did some good things, but when you play against a goaltender like that, you have to work your way to the inside for screens and tips. I felt like tonight was one of those games where we didn’t do a good enough job getting to the inside, and they did on two plays. That was the difference.”

Notes:

Protas has five points (two goals and three assists) in a four-game point streak. Lindgren made consecutive starts for the first time this season after making 22 saves in a 3-0 win against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, his first start since recovering from an upper-body injury sustained during a 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on January 10. This game marked Hughes’ 99th career multi-point game, just one shy of becoming the 13th skater and the first defenseman to record 100 with Vancouver.

For more information visit the website here