Calgary Flames (33-13-5 71pts) v. Washington Capitals (27-17-6 60pts)
Game Recap:
The Washington Capitals came back from the break looking fresh, and would show it early on as they would get the first goal of the game when the Capitals would force the play in the Calgary Flames zone and Nic Dowd would tip in a John Carlson point shot for his fifth of the season. The first period would feature a lot of back and forth between these two teams, but late in the period we would have some fireworks when Mikael Backlund would score on a beautiful individual effort to tie the game at one a piece, but the Capitals would not lay down as they brought the play to the Flames and crashed Mike Smith’s net and Dmitrij Jaskin would knock in the rebound for his second of the season, and give the Capitals the 2-1 lead with less than 45 seconds left in the period.
The Capitals would start the second period on fire as the second line of Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Jakub Vrana would connect for a quick goal on a Wilson wrister less than a minute into the period. Then 83 seconds later, the Flames would get one back as a point shot by TJ Brodie would take a couple deflections and go off of Garnet Hathaway to cut the Capitals lead back to one. The Flames would take back to back penalties to allow the Capitals powerplay an opportunity to get into the game, and while the first powerplay looked good for the Capitals, the second opportunity was not as good. However, the Capitals would get their third straight powerplay opportunity when Mark Giordano would take his second penalty of the period. The Capitals would get some good looks, but once again would not be able to capitalize on the powerplay. In the second period the Capitals out shot the Flames 16 to 7.
The third period would not start in the Capitals favor as Michal Kempny would be called for a penalty 45 seconds into the period, but would kill off that penalty only to take another penalty when Dmitry Orlov would be called for holding. The Capitals would persevere as they would kill off their second straight penalty. However, the Flames would tie the game up when Elias Lindholm would tip in a Johnny Gaudreau point shot. But it would be a late penalty against Backlund for Holding that would result in a powerplay goal by Kuznetsov to win the game for the Capitals and end their 7 game losing streak.
Lineups:
Calgary Flames:
Johnny Gaudreau — Sean Monahan — Elias Lindholm
Sam Bennett — Mark Jankowski — James Neal
Matthew Tkachuk — Mikael Backlund — Michael Frolik
Andrew Mangiapane — Derek Ryan — Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano — TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin — Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington — Rasmus Andersson
Mike Smith
David Rittich
Scratched: Austin Czarnik, Dalton Prout
Injured: Michael Stone (blood clot)
Washington Capitals:
Chandler Stephenson — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Dmitrij Jaskin — Lars Eller — Brett Connolly
Andre Burakovsky – Nic Dowd — Devante Smith-Pelly
Dmitry Orlov — John Carlson
Michal Kempny — Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik — Jonas Siegenthaler
Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley
Scratched: Travis Boyd, Madison Bowey
Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)
Suspended: Alex Ovechkin
First Period:
Capitals Goal – 3:00 – Nic Dowd (5) from John Carlson (40) and Michal Kempny (12)
Flames Goal – 17:37 – Mikael Backlund (13) from unassisted
Capitals Goal – 19:24 – Dmitrij Jaskin (2) from Lars Eller (16) and Brooks Orpik (3)
End of 1st – CAL – 1 WAS – 2
Shots 13 13
Faceoffs 13 14
Hits 08 19
PP 0/0 0/0
Second Period:
Capitals Goal – :54 – Tom Wilson (14) from Jakub Vrana (14) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (33)
Flames Goal – 2:17 – Garnet Hathaway (6) from Derek Ryan (13) and TJ Brodie (20)
Flames Penalty – 8:29 – Mark Giordano 2 minutes for High Sticking
Flames Penalty – 13:33 – Garnet Hathaway 2 minutes Tripping
Flames Penalty – 15:55 – Mark Giordano 2 minutes for Hooking
End of 2nd – CAL – 2 WAS – 3
Shots 20 29
Faceoffs 24 22
Hits 11 29
PP 0/0 0/3
Third Period:
Capitals Penalty – :45 – Michal Kempny 2 minutes for Interference
Capitals Penalty – 8:29 – Dmitry Orlov 2 minutes for Holding
Flames Goal – 12:01 – Elias Lindholm (22) from Johnny Gaudreau (45) and TJ Brodie (21)
Flames Penalty – 18:02 – Mikael Backlund 2 minutes for Holding
Capitals PPG – 19:03 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (10) from TJ Oshie (14) and Nicklas Backstrom (39)
Capitals Penalty – 20:00 – Nicklas Backstrom 2 minutes for Interference
Capitals Penalty – 20:00 – Brooks Orpik 5 minute major for Fighting
Flames Penalty – 20:00 – Matthew Tkachuk 5 minute major for Fighting
End of 3rd – CAL – 3 WAS – 4
Shots 30 40
Faceoffs 41 33
Hits 14 34
PP 0/2 1/4
Next Up:
Washington (28-17-6 62pts) v. Boston (27-17-7 61pts)
Calgary (33-14-5 71pts) @ Carolina (25-20-6 56pts)