Washington Capitals (4-1-2) at Vancouver Canucks (4-3-0), 9:30 p.m. (ET)

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Washington Capitals hope to wrap up a road trip through Western Canada with a victory on Sunday night as they take on the Vancouver Canucks.

Washington has split the first two games of the trek. The Capitals lost 3-2 in Edmonton on Wednesday -- their first regulation loss of the season -- but rebounded to top Calgary 3-1 on Saturday night.

Joel Ward scored twice to lift Washington to its third victory in four games. He scored the game's first goal unassisted with 8:43 to go in the first and then put the Capitals back ahead by one on his fourth tally of the season at 5:41 of the second.

"He scored two big goals for us tonight," Capitals head coach Barry Trotz said. "He played very well tonight."

Nicklas Backstrom also lit the lamp and Braden Holtby made 20 saves for the Capitals.

Vancouver will try to tighten up its defense tonight after losing a 7-3 decision to Colorado on Friday. Henrik Sedin scored just 10 seconds into the game and Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist, but the Canucks ended up allowing four or more goals for the fourth time in seven games this season.

"We are strong enough to score a lot of goals, but we can't keep giving up five, six, seven a game," said Henrik Sedin. "We did not play well tonight, we just weren't sharp enough."

Alexandre Burrows also scored for the Canucks, who have lost three of four, while Eddie Lack allowed all seven goals on 48 shots.

Vancouver is set to play three straight and four of its next five at home.

The Canucks have won nine of their last 11 versus the Capitals, but both losses over that span came in Washington. They have won five in a row and seven of their last eight at home in this series, not losing as the host to Washington since Feb. 14, 2001 in overtime.

Washington has not topped Vancouver in regulation as the visitor since March 28, 1998.