VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Steve Kariya had a great birthday and gave Felix Potvin something to celebrate as well.

Kariya celebrated his 22nd birthday with two goals, snapping a 13-game scoring drought, to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 6-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

	Washington's Jeff Toms gets some open ice as Vancouver's Markus Naslund loses his edge on Wednesday.

Potvin, acquired in Sunday's trade with the New York Islanders, stopped 31 shots in his Canucks debut, and ended his own eight-game winless stretch (0-6-2), going back to Nov. 19.

As nice as the goals were, Kariya said his birthday wish was a Vancouver victory. The Canucks snapped a 0-6-1 skid and won for only the second time in 14 games (2-9-3).

"It was great win for us and hopefully it'll turn things around and we can kind of relax a bit going into the holidays," said Kariya, whose ice time had been dropping while his slump grew longer.

"Lately, I don't think I've been getting a lot of shots on goal. Today, I got quite a few. And if you want to score in this league, you've got to give yourself a lot of opportunities," the rookie said.

Coach Marc Crawford said the difference he saw in Kariya's game was that he looked hungry for goals.

"That's what we need from him," Crawford said. "When he gets those chances, to be almost like the alligator or the crocodile and really sense that scoring bug. Tonight I saw him go into a feeding frenzy. He really wanted to score tonight."

Kariya's performance ignited the Canucks' best offensive output in more than two months and snapped a string of 12 straight games in which Vancouver had failed to score three or more goals in regulation. Vancouver has only scored six goals once this season, and that came in an overtime victory.

Nearly lost in all the goal scoring was Potvin's first game with the Canucks.

After giving up three goals on the first 12 shots he faced, including the first goal on a James Black breakaway 1:17 into the game, Potvin settled down. In the third period, he kept Washington scoreless despite four power-play opportunities and a 13-2 shots advantage.

"No doubt there was a bit of nervousness," Potvin said. "But once I got into it -- that's the best part about it -- it all went away."

Potvin joked that he's given up the game-opening goal four times this season only to have his team pull out the victory.

"It was important to not let them jump to a two-goal lead after that, so I just tried to focus on the puck," he said.

Adrian Aucoin, with his third goal in three games, Josh Holden, Markus Naslund and Andrew Cassels also scored for the Canucks. Todd Bertuzzi had two assists in his first game since being promoted to the Canucks top line.

Black had two goals and Andrei Nikoloshin had one for the Capitals, who lost their third in a row.

Olaf Kolzig had his third straight poor performance, stopping only 17 Vancouver shots. Kolzig has given up 16 goals in 149 minutes of play.

The loss spoiled the night of Capitals' captain Adam Oates, who was playing in his 1,000th game.

"The win would've been more special," Oates said. "A couple of the goals were not so much breakdowns but more bad breaks."

The game was decided after two Capitals goals within 56 seconds of the second period tied it at 3. Black scored his sixth right before Nikolishin's third goal at 5:49.

Cassels' ninth goal, on a fortunate bounce, put the Canucks ahead for good. Skating deep into the left corner, his centering pass deflected off defenseman Ken Klee's skate and into the net with 7:37 left in the second.

Kariya, set up by a breakaway pass from Alexander Mogilny, made it 5-3 when he outskated Klee and backhanded a shot over Kolzig's right shoulder with 50 seconds left in the second. Kariya sealed the victory on a partial breakaway 8:32 into the third.