Hughes scores twice, Canucks end Capitals' 6-game win streak

VANCOUVER -- Quinn Hughes scored twice and the Vancouver Canucks ended the NHL-leading Washington Capitals' six-game win streak with a 2-1 victory at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves and Filip Hronek had two assists for the Canucks (21-17-10), who ended a two-game losing streak with their second win in the past six games (2-4-0) and third in the past 11 (3-6-2).

“It's massive, just because how we've been playing, obviously not good enough, and to come out here against a really good team and play as well as we did, that's a really good sign,” Hughes said. “But also in saying that, we got to find a way to bring that consistently.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored in the third period and Charlie Lindgren made 23 saves for the Capitals (33-11-5), who lost in regulation for the first time in 2025. Washington had points in 12 straight games (9-0-3) since their last regulation loss on Dec. 29, the longest point streak in the NHL this season.

“Obviously playing the top team, [the defensemen] were really good in front of me, allowing me to see the pucks and Quinn took over the game, showed what a great leader he is stepping up in situations like this,” Lankinen said. “So it was huge.”

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

“I think we have pretty good chances,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, the goalie played well and you can see at the end, we just missed execution. Puck was bobbling, bouncing but it was a good battle. We fight till the end.”

Hughes put the Canucks ahead 1-0 at 12:23 of the first period, less than one minute after Lars Eller hit the post on a backdoor tap-in and then missed on two chances to put the bouncing puck into an empty net. Hughes took a pass from Nils Hoglander in the right corner to the left point and cut back into the middle, around Brandon Duhaime into the slot and backhanded a shot from the right hash mark back the other way and over the glove of a screened Lindgren.

“I just noticed probably they were expecting me to try to push it to the outside on my forehand, and I’ve just got to take the ice that they gave me,” Hughes said. “Saw a couple other times where I had to spin back because they're just kind of taking the outside away but I'm fine with that and I've worked on my backhand and coming across the top a lot over the last couple years.”

Hughes made it 2-0 at 1:24 of the second period, skating backwards across the blue line left to right before sending a wrist shot through traffic and over Lindgren’s blocker.

“I'm just trying to get through the first layer,” Hughes said. “I can see that [Elias Pettersson] was popping high, so I knew he had a chance to get a tip on it or screen the goalie and you got to give yourself a chance. There's so much traffic in front, if I get it past that first guy, those wristers, it's hard for the goalie to see.”

Hughes has seven points (five goals, two assists) during a five-game point streak, and 57 goals in the NHL, passing Kevin Bieksa (56) and Rick Lanz (56) and moving into a tie with Ed Jovanovski for sixth most goals ever by a Canucks defenseman.

“I'm just extremely impressed,” Lankinen, who is in his first season in Vancouver, said of Hughes. “Obviously, playing against him in the last few years, but now seeing him on a daily basis, just how he drags guys along and takes over games is remarkable. I'm just really happy to be witnessing that and just being the same side of that show.”

Capitals coach Spencer Carbery praised the Canucks for getting traffic in front of Lindgren, especially Pettersson and Linus Karlsson on the first goal, and lamented his team’s inability to do the same in front of Lankinen early on.

They made it a focus going into the third period, and it paid off when Dubois pulled the Capitals to 2-1 at 12:31, tapping in a loose puck after Aliaksei Protas knocked a rebound away from Lankinen as he tried to cover it against his pad with his glove.

“Against a team that defends really hard, really structured, big, strong, physical, there's not a lot of real estate, and we did some good things, but when you're playing against a goaltender like that, you're going to have to work your way to the inside for screens, tips,” Carbery said. “I just felt like it was one of those games tonight where we didn't do a good enough job getting to the inside, and they did on two plays, and that's the difference.”

NOTES: Protas has five points (two goals, three assists) on a four-game point streak. … Lindgren was starting consecutive games for the first time this season after making 22 saves in a 3-0 win at the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, which was his first start since sustaining an upper-body injury during a 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Jan. 10. … It was Hughes' 99th career multi-point game, one short of becoming the 13th skater and first defenseman to record 100 with Vancouver.