Arvedson scores twice in Senators' win over Caps

OTTAWA -- Magnus Arvedson never lost faith in his ability to score.

Arvedson had two goals to break a 24-game scoring drought as the Ottawa Senators beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 Thursday night.

"I'm 30 years old and I know how it works," Arvedson said. "I wasn't panicking because I hadn't scored."

Arvedson, who hadn't scored since Oct. 30, beat goalie Olaf Kolzig with 6:50 left in the first period. His second goal of the game -- and sixth of the season -- gave the Senators a three-goal lead with 5:52 left in the second.

"I haven't thought so much about it because I've been pretty satisfied with my game, anyway -- but I get reminded by some guys, sometimes," Arvedson said. "Of course it's fun to score goals, but at the same time I think the most important thing is that I felt good out there."

Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, who scored Ottawa's second goal, assisted on Arvedson's first goal to extend his point streak to six games.

"He was obviously happy," Alfredsson said of Arvedson. "We've been playing pretty well as a line, but I think tonight we really played awesome and forechecked hard and cycled in their end and kept (Peter) Bondra out of our end most of the night."

Alfredsson has five goals while scoring in each of his past three games. He has nine points in his past six games.

Jaromir Jagr scored his 14th goal with 14:54 left in the third to ruin Jani Hurme's shutout bid and extend his point streak to four games.

Marian Hossa scored with 4:01 remaining to restore Ottawa's three-goal lead.

Capitals co-captain Brendan Witt left the game late in the second after aggravating an injury to his right arm when he was checked into the end boards by Alfredsson.

Washington, which beat the New York Islanders 3-2 Tuesday night, ended a three-game unbeaten streak (2-0-1).

"For the most part, we played OK, but a good team like that capitalizes, and it's tough to fight uphill all the time on the road," Capitals center Adam Oates said. "That's what we've been doing and we've got to find a way out of it."

The game was the second of four meetings between the teams this season. The Senators set a team record for goals in an 11-5 win on Nov. 13 in Washington.

Arvedson snapped his goal drought in the first as he reached for Todd White's rebound behind the goal line and pulled the puck back before tucking it inside the right post.

Defenseman Zdeno Chara set up the Senators' second goal at 7:53 of the second when he used his right skate to block Oates' attempt to push the puck past him just inside the Ottawa blue line.

Chara quickly stepped up and fired a breakaway pass up the middle to Alfredsson, who got behind the Capitals' defense and went in alone from the blue line to beat Kolzig with a shot off the inside of the right post.

It was his team-leading 21st goal.

"That was awesome," Alfredsson said. "It's tough to chip it by his skates. . . . I took a chance and went for the far blue line. He kept his head up, and it was a perfect pass and I was all alone."

Arvedson added his second of the game with 5:52 left in the second to put the Senators up by three.

Notes: Witt, who logged 18:56 of ice time Tuesday, left early in a 5-5 tie against Carolina on Dec. 30 after he was struck on the right arm by a shot. . . . The Capitals, who entered with the NHL's best power-play percentage, went 0-for-3 with the man advantage. . . . Alfredsson has four goals and two assists in two games against Washington this season. . . . Ottawa outshot the Capitals 37-20.