St. Louis Blues (19-20-4 42pts) v. Washington Capitals (27-12-5 59pts)
Game Recap:
After a slow start to the game, the Washington Capitals would get an opportunity when St. Louis Blues defender Vince Dunn would be called for boarding Brett Connolly, and after a sloppy start to the powerplay it would be Alex Ovechkin scoring his 33rd of the season on the powerplay to give the Capitals the 1-0 lead. After that powerplay goal, it would become an uneventful period for the Capitals as they would be forced into their own zone for a good amount of the second half of the period. It should also be noted that when the Capitals scored it was their second shot of the game after the Blues already had 7 on Pheonix Copley.
To start the period it would be the Blues tying the game at one a piece when Ivan Barbashev snuck one glove slide along the post to beat Copley. However, the wound would be opened wider as Vince Dunn would shoot the puck that would take three weird bounces before going in, and then Ryan O’Reilly would be called for Tripping, but as soon as the penalty ended the Capitals would play poorly in their zone and David Perron would extend his point streak when he scored to give the Blues a 3-1 lead.
This period would see the Capitals generate some chances, but nothing substantial before the end of the 2nd period.
For the third period we would see about the same, plus a Blues powerplay goal by Vladimir Tarasenko to ice the game for the Blues over the Capitals 4-1.
Lineups:
St. Louis Blues:
Jaden Schwartz — Brayden Schenn — Vladimir Tarasenko
Zach Sanford — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron
Pat Maroon — Oskar Sundqvist — Jordan Kyruo
Jordan Nolan — Ivan Barbashev — Sammy Blais
Joel Edmundson — Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester — Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn — Robert Bortuzzo
Jake Allen
Jordan Binnington
Scratched: Robby Fabbri, Mackenzie MacEachern, Carl Gunnarsson
Injured: Tyler Bozak (upper body), Alexander Steen (shoulder), Robert Thomas (upper body)
Washington Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Brett Connolly — Lars Eller — Andre Burakovsky
Chandler Stephenson — Travis Boyd — Devante Smith-Pelly
Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen
Michal Kempny — John Carlson
Brooks Orpik — Madison Bowey
Pheonix Copley
Braden Holtby
Scratched: Nic Dowd, Dmitrij Jaskin, Jonas Siegenthaler
Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)
First Period:
Blues Penalty – 6:14 – Vince Dunn 2 minutes for Boarding
Capitals PPG – 7:50 – Alex Ovechkin (33) from Dmitry Orlov (11) and Travis Boyd (9)
End of 1st – STL – 0 WAS – 1
Shots 14 07
Faceoffs 08 07
Hits 07 07
PP 0/0 1/1
Second Period:
Blues Goal – 3:18 – Ivan Barbashev (6) from unassisted
Blues Goal – 5:11 – Vince Dunn (4) from Vladimir Tarasenko (14) and Jaden Schwartz (16)
Blues Penalty – 5:22 – Ryan O’Reilly 2 minutes for Tripping
Blues Goal – 8:00 – David Perron (16) from Vince Dunn (15) and Ryan O’Reilly (27)
Blues Penalty – 15:00 – Pat Maroon 2 minutes fro Roughing
Capitals Penalty – 15:00 – Tom Wilson 2 minutes for Roughing
End of 2nd – STL – 3 WAS – 1
Shots 28 20
Faceoffs 20 14
Hits 16 19
PP 0/0 1/2
Third Period:
Capitals Penalty – 2:01 – Matt Niskanen 2 minutes for Hooking
Blues Penalty – 3:07 – Vladimir Tarasenko 2 minutes for Holding
Blues Penalty – 9:26 – Alex Ovechkin 2 minutes for Delay of Game
Blues PPG – 10:24 – Vladimir Tarasenko (15) from Ryan O’Reilly (28) and Alex Pietrangelo (12)
End of 3rd – STL – 4 WAS – 1
Shots 37 29
Faceoffs 33 22
Hits 22 26
PP 1/2 1/3
Next Up:
Washington (27-13-5 59pts) @ Nashville (27-16-4 58pts)
St. Louis (20-20-4 44pts) @ NY Islanders (25-15-4 54pts)