VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Keeping it simple worked for the Washington Capitals.

Marcus Johansson scored a pair of goals and assisted on another as the Capitals defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 Saturday night to snap a two-game losing skid.

"We worked hard and we played the right way," said Johansson, who scored one of his goals on the power play. "We played simple, worked for each other and didn't try too much fancy stuff.

"We kept it simple and worked and went to the net. That's how you get goals. When we got the puck deep we showed what we could do. We created a lot of chances and we make it tough for the other team."

T.J. Oshie scored a goal and had an assist for Washington (4-2-1). Tom Wilson and Karl Alzner, the latter into an empty net, also scored for the Capitals.

Wilson said the Capitals wanted to avoid their first three-game, regular-season losing streak since Feb. 22-27, 2015.

"It was Capitals hockey," he said. "You could tell the urgency. You could tell we came out and we were skating.

"When our team is playing like that, give them (Vancouver) credit for staying in the game because we can be a dangerous hockey team in this room."

Johansson's goal in the second period was just the third power-play goal of the year for Washington and the first in seven man-advantages over four games. The struggling Capitals penalty kill also went 3-for-3.

"We had to bounce back from the last couple of games," said goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who made 23 saves.

"Tonight we executed in all the areas of the game and it was nice to get the win."

Coach Barry Trotz said his team played a smart game.

"We've got good leadership, it shows all the time," he said. "I think they recognized what the message was and I thought we played really well.

"The puck management, it was easier to create offense when you are going north, when you put the puck on someone's tape, when you have really good support. We were able to have good puck possession, good looks. We expanded the zone."

Bo Horvat and Jannik Hansen scored for Vancouver. Goaltender Jacob Markstom kept the game close with 30 saves.

After starting the season 4-0-0 the Canucks suffered their fifth consecutive loss to drop to 4-4-1.

"We have to stop it now," Horvat said about the losing streak. "Losing five in a row sucks. We can't be doing that for the rest of the year."

Scoring remains a problem for Vancouver. The Canucks were shut out in back-to-back losses against Edmonton and Ottawa.

Vancouver also has scored two or less goals in every game but two this season. That means the team must play sound defensively for any chance to win.

"I didn't think we were good enough structurally tonight," said Horvat. "We gave up too many shots on net. We have to keep working on our defensive game."

The five goals are the most Vancouver has allowed this season.

"We can't trade goals," said captain Henrik Sedin. "It's impossible.

"We want to play good defensively. We know we can score enough goals to win (but) we can't give up five goals and win games. That's impossible."

The Canucks trailed 3-2 after two periods. It was the ninth time this season Vancouver went into a third period trailing by just one goal.

"You want to be in one-goal games but you want to be on the leading end of them," Hansen said. "It's extremely tough to come back.

"We had our chances to tie it up but they certainly had theirs to put the game away."

Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said the Capitals wore his team down.

"They came hard in the second period," Desjardins said. "They gave us trouble down low.

"We had trouble containing them one-on-one. We had some real good looks, we just didn't score. We're going to play some games like that."

NOTES: Vancouver started RW Jannik Hansen on the top line with C Henrik Sedin and LW Daniel Sedin. RW Loui Eriksson played with C Brandon Sutter and RW Markus Granlund. ... Canucks C Brendan Gaunce dressed after leaving Friday's 2-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers with an injury. ... Vancouver C Jayson Megna will be out 10 to 14 days with a shoulder injury. RW Alex Burrows (neck) and RW Derek Dorsett (shoulder) skated with the team and could return next week. ... Canucks LW Michael Zalewski, called up from Utica of the AHL, dressed. ... Washington reunited LW Alex Ovechkin and C Nicklas Backstrom on the top line with RW Justin Williams. LW Andre Burakovsky moved to the third line. C Evgeny Kuznetsov dropped to the second line with LW Marcus Johansson and RW Tom Wilson. ... Capitals LW Daniel Winnik was a healthy scratch after scoring two goals in six games.