Washington came into its game against the Florida Panthers without its star player and left with even more injuries. In between, the beat-up Capitals found a way to finally come away with a win.

Jose Theodore stopped 28 shots, Brendan Morrison scored twice and the Capitals beat the Panthers, 4-1, on Friday night to break a three-game losing streak.

Brian Pothier had a goal and two assists, and Tyler Sloan added a goal for the Capitals (9-3-4) in the opening contest of home-and-home series with the Panthers.

The Capitals, who were again without injured star Alex Ovechkin, will face Florida (5-8-1) on Saturday night in Washington. Capitals defensemen Mike Green (upper body) and Jeff Schultz (lower body) were hurt in the first period Friday and did not return. Coach Bruce Boudreau said their status would be updated Saturday.

"Really good teams usually have to play with a lot of injuries, because their guys are willing to pay the price of winning," Boudreau said. "I just hope our price wasn't too high."

Nathan Horton scored for Florida and Tomas Vokoun, coming off back-to-back shutouts, made 21 saves. Vokoun stopped 77 consecutive shots, dating to a second-period goal in Florida's 4-3 loss to Ottawa on Oct. 28, before Sloan scored in the first.

"They're a desperate team," Panthers coach Pete DeBoer said. "They'd lost three in a row. Got some key players out, we've been on the other end of that. They were hungrier in the tough areas tonight than we were. There's no excuse for that."

Ovechkin missed his second consecutive game because of an upper-body injury that he sustained Sunday against Columbus. The two-time defending league MVP is considered week to week and didn't participate in Washington's morning skate Friday. It was the sixth time Ovechkin missed a game in his five-season NHL career, and the fourth time an injury has sidelined him.