Ottawa Senators (22-35-5 49pts) v. Washington Capitals (35-21-7 77pts)
Game Recap:
The Washington Capitals host the Ottawa Senators as they close out the month of February and it would be the Senators who would get the first goal of the game when newly acquired forwards Brian Gibbons and Oscar Lindberg connect for Lindberg’s first goal with the Senators and Gibbons first point with the team to give them the 1-0 lead over the Capitals. Then on a Travis Boyd slashing penalty, the Senators would get a goal from another newly acquired forward Anthony Duclair on the powerplay to give them a 2-0 lead. However, the Capitals would get back into it when they would take advantage of a poor line change by the Senators as the top line of Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin, and Tom Wilson would play tic tac toe for Wilson’s 18th of the season, then 53 seconds late Lars Eller would rip one past Senators goaltender Anders Nilsson to tie the game at two.
The Capitals started off the period flying and as a result they would get a powerplay opportunity when Chris Tierney would be called for tripping and the Capitals would make the most of their powerplay opportunity as it would be a John Carlson bomb from the point to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead, but then it would be back to back dirty goals by TJ Oshie and Brett Connolly to give the Capitals a powerful 5-2 lead. Then Oshie would get his second of the game in a confusing sequence as it would be Nilsson knocking the net off the moarings as Oshie shot the puck in the net, but a goal is a goal, and it is now 6-2 for the Capitals with the Senators pulling Nilsson for Craig Anderson.
Going in the third period the Capitals would waste no time as Evgeny Kuznetsov would score 17 seconds into the game to make it 7-2 for the Capitals. The Capitals would control the play in the third to kill the clock and secure the victory.
Lineups:
Ottawa Senators:
Brady Tkachuk — Colin White — Anthony Duclair
Rudolfs Balcers — Chris Tierney — Mikkel Boedker
Zack Smith — Jean-Gabriel Pageau — Bobby Ryan
Brian Gibbons — Oscar Lindberg — Magnus Paajarvi
Thomas Chabot — Dylan DeMelo
Mark Borowiecki — Christian Jaros
Ben Harpur — Cody Ceci
Anders Nilsson
Craig Anderson
Scratched: Christian Wolanin
Washington Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky — Lars Eller — Brett Connolly
Carl Hagelin — Nic Dowd — Travis Boyd
Michal Kempny — John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik — Nick Jensen
Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley
Scratched: Dmitrij Jaskin, Chandler Stephenson, Christian Djoos
First Period:
Senators Goal – 3:16 – Oscar Lindberg (5) from Brian Gibbons (4) and Magnus Paajarvi (3)
Capitals Penalty – 5:22 – Travis Boyd 2 minutes for Slashing
Senators PPG – 7:10 – Anthony Duclair (12) from Cody Ceci (16) and Christian Jaros (7)
Capitals Goal – 16:57 – Tom Wilson (18) from Alex Ovechkin (29) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (41)
Capitals Goal – 17:50 – Lars Eller (8) from Dmitry Orlov (16) and Brett Connolly (19)
End of 1st – OTT – 2 WAS – 2
Shots 13 09
Faceoffs 09 12
Hits 05 03
PP 1/1 0/0
Second Period:
Senators Penalty – 2:00 – Chris Tierney 2 minutes for Tripping
Capitals PPG – 2:38 – John Carlson (10) from Nicklas Backstrom (44) and TJ Oshie (21)
Capitals Goal – 6:29 – TJ Oshie (19) from Brooks Orpik (5) and Nicklas Backstrom (45)
Capitals Goal – 9:05 – Brett Connolly (16) from Andre Burakovsky (12)
Capitals Goal – 10:33 – TJ Oshie (20) from Dmitry Orlov (17) and Jakub Vrana (21)
End of 2nd – OTT – 2 WAS – 6
Shots 18 26
Faceoffs 22 23
Hits 11 06
PP 1/1 1/1
Third Period:
Capitals Goal – :17 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (17) from Alex Ovechkin (30) and Tom Wilson (15)
End of 3rd – OTT – 2 WAS – 7
Shots 23 37
Faceoffs 35 30
Hits 15 08
PP 1/1 1/1
Next Up:
Washington (36-21-7 79pts) @ NY Islanders (36-19-7 79pts)
Ottawa (22-36-5 49pts) v. Edmonton (26-29-7 59pts)