Washington Capitals (5-2-0 10pts) v. Columbus Blue Jackets (3-3-0 6pts)

Game Recap:

The Washington Capitals hit the road for the first time in two weeks as they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets for a Metropolitan Division battle, and in the first period, the Blue Jackets would be the ones generating the better scoring chances on Logan Thompson as the Jackets outshot the Capitals 8 to 4 in the first 11:44 of the game. However, the Capitals would lose defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk after taking a puck up high. Coming out of the TV timeout, the Capitals got some quick opportunities and momentum going their way. With four minutes left in the period, Jakob Chychrun would draw a slashing penalty against Dmitri Voronkov to give the Capitals the first powerplay of the game. The Capitals would not core on the powerplay, and the momentum would swing the Jackets way after killing off the penalty. With 6 seconds left in the period, Nic Dowd would be called for tripping to give the Blue Jackets their first powerplay of the game, but the period would end before anything could really happen as the first period would remain scoreless between the Capitals and Blue Jackets.

Going into the second period, van Riemsdyk would return to the game for the Capitals, and the Blue Jackets would not capitalize on the powerplay to start the period. Moments later, Chychrun would draw his second penalty of the game as Kirill Marchenko would be called for holding the stick to put the Capitals back on the powerplay. However, the Capitals would fumble this opportunity once again. Later in the period Ethen Frank would be called for slashing to give Columbus their second powerplay opportunity, and they would also fail to capitalize on the powerplay. Late in the period, on their second shot of the period, John Carlson would release a slap shot from the point to beat Jet Greaves for the Capitals to take the 1-0 lead.

In the Opening 96 seconds of the third period, Alex Ovechkin would rip one right off the faceoff to score his second of the season and 899th career NHL goal to give the Capitals the 2-0 lead. Then 64 seconds later, Justin Sourdif would score his first as a Capital while on a breakaway to grow the Capitals lead to three. Moments later, Hendrix Lapierre would taking a slashing penalty to put the Jackets on the powerplay, that they would not be able to score on once again. The Capitals would get a little sloppy as Denton Mateychuck would score to end the shutout bid for Logan Thompson, and then it looked like the Jackets had another goal, but after review it was deemed no goal as Dmitri Voronkov kicked the puck into the net. Moments later, Mathieu Olivier would do a high hit on Declan Chisholm, that would force Chisholm to the locker room, and after review, the officials deemed it a major for elbowing to give the Capitals the 5 minute powerplay opportunity. While on the powerplay, with a lot of chaos in the slot area, Tom Wilson would backhand the puck into an open net to give the Capitals the 4-1 lead. Then on the same powerplay, Connor McMichael would display great patience and hand-eye coordination as he would bat out of mid-air the puck into the net to give the Capitals the 5-1 victory over the Blue Jackets.

 

Lineups:

Washington Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Anthony Beauvillier

Aliaksei Protas — Justin Sourdif — Ryan Leonard

Hendrix Lapierre — Connor McMichael — Tom Wilson

Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Ethen Frank

Martin Fehervary — John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy

Declan Chisholm — Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson

Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: Dylan McIlrath, Sonny Milano

Injured: Rasmus Sandin (upper body), Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower body)

 

Columbus Blue Jackets:

Dmitri Voronkov — Sean Monahan — Kirill Marchenko

Boone Jenner — Adam Fantilli — Kent Johnson

Cole Sillinger — Charlie Coyle — Mathieu Olivier

Zach Aston-Reese — Isac Lundestrom — Yegor Chinakhov

Zach Werenski — Denton Mateychuk

Ivan Provorov — Damon Severson

Dante Fabbro — Erik Gudbranson

Jet Greaves

Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched: Jake Christiansen

Injured: Miles Wood (eye)

 

First Period

CLB Penalty – 16:04 – Dmitri Voronkov – 2 minutes for Slashing

WAS Penalty – 19:54 – Nic Dowd – 2 minutes for Tripping

 

End of First	WAS – 0	CLB – 0
Shots	12	12
Faceoff Wins	7/10	3/10
Hits	9	13
Powerplay	0/1	N/A

Second Period

CLB Penalty – 4:52 – Kirill Marchenko – 2 minutes for Holding

WAS Penalty – 10-18 – Ethen Frank – 2 minutes for Slashing

WAS Goal – 18:19 – John Carlson (2) from Connor McMichael (2) and Hendrix Lapierre (2)

 

End of Second	WAS – 1	CLB – 0
Shots	14	21
Faceoff Wins	12/28	16/28
Hits	19	19
Powerplay	0/2	0/2

Third Period

WAS Goal – 1:36 – Alex Ovechkin (2) from Dylan Strome (8)

WAS Goal – 2:40 – Justin Sourdif (1) from Ryan Leonard (1) and Logan Thompson (1)

WAS Penalty – 6:19 – Hendrix Lapierre – 2 minutes for Slashing

CLB Goal – 10:20 – Denton Mateychuck (2) from Sean Monahan (2) and Dmitri Voronkov (4)

CLB Penalty – 12:35 – Mathieu Olivier – 5 minute major for Elbowing

WAS PPG – 15:39 – Tom Wilson (5) from Ethen Frank (1) and John Carlson (5)

WAS PPG – 16:37 – Connor McMichael (1) from Alex Ovechkin (5) and Aliaksei Protas (5)

 

End of Third	WAS – 5	CLB – 1
Shots	30	35
Faceoff Wins	24/47	23/47
Hits	23	25
Powerplay	2/5	0/3

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