Collin Graf had a goal and an assist as the San Jose Sharks got back in the win column with a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Pavol Regenda<\/a> also had a goal and an assist for the Sharks, who have lost just twice in the past seven games. Zack Ostapchuk had a goal, and Macklin Celebrini registered an assist in the win. Alex Nedeljkovic started and made 21 saves. Nedeljkovic has now won his past three starts.<\/p>\n Celebrini\u2019s assist was his 33rd primary assist of the season. The Sharks forward has\u00a0the most among all players this season\u00a0(next closest:\u00a0Connor\u00a0McDavid: 30). Celebrini can become the first teenager to lead an entire season in primary assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dylan Strome and Ryan Leonard<\/a> scored for the Capitals, who haven\u2019t won back-to-back games since they played the Sharks on Dec. 3. Alex Ovechkin<\/a> had a power-play assist, and Canadian Olympic teammate of Celebrini Logan Thompson made 23 saves.<\/p>\n Will Smith did not play on Thursday, but is expected to return from an upper-body injury on Friday against the<\/a> Detroit Red Wings. Smith hasn\u2019t played since Dec. 13<\/a> and would be a welcome addition to the San Jose Sharks lineup.<\/p>\n Strome gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 10:58 of the second period. Ovechkin took a one-timer from his spot that went wide but bounced back in front of the net for Strome to lift in on the backhand.<\/p>\n Ostapchuk tied the game 1-1 at 13:27. Dmitry Orlov raced the puck into the zone and had a strong forecheck to allow the puck to bounce in front for the goal.<\/p>\n Graf put the Sharks in front, 2-1, at 14:53 after Regenda completed a great backcheck, saucering a pass to Graf in front. Graf lifted the puck over Thompson\u2019s glove.<\/p>\n Regenda pushed the Sharks\u2019 lead to 3-1 at 16:13. Celebrini won another puck battle behind the net and put a perfect through-the-legs back pass to Regenda in front.<\/p>\n Leonard got one back for the Capitals to make it 3-2 at 9:11 of the third period. Leonard walked around Reaves and scored with a shot by Nedeljkovic.<\/p>\n Read more news and stories about the San Jose Sharks on\u00a0Sharks Hockey Digest<\/a>! Bookmark the page and follow Sharks Hockey Digest on Twitter @SharksHKYDigest<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collin Graf had a goal and an assist as the San Jose Sharks got back in the win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[5807,426,191,845,282,5,501,4,1265,516,168,8246,24660,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-410132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-alex-nedeljkovic","9":"tag-alex-ovechkin","10":"tag-capitals","11":"tag-collin-graf","12":"tag-dylan-strome","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-macklin-celebrini","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-pavol-regenda","17":"tag-ryan-leonard","18":"tag-san-jose-sharks","19":"tag-sharks-news","20":"tag-sj-sharks","21":"tag-washington","22":"tag-washington-capitals","23":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115902819079247253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}