The Washington Capitals beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3, Wednesday night at Verizon Center to stretch their winning streak to three games.  The Capitals close-out their season-longest home stand on Friday night against the Tampa Bay Lighting.  Tonight’s starting lines for the Capitals:

(Photo: @yennylouie)

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Johansson-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Beagle-Burakovsky
Laich-Latta-Wilson

Defensive Pairs:
Schmidt-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Chorney

Brooks Orpik missed his seventh straight game due to a lower body injury suffered in Detroit on November 10th.  Stanislav Galiev was the healthy scratch.

QUICK TAKES
The capitals struck first, but had trouble clearing the puck out of their defensive zone, with numerous turnovers in the first period.  After a stellar game on Monday night, Braden Holtby looked weak on the glove-side early in this one, giving up two goals in the first period.  Holtby would improve as the game went on.  Evgeny Kuznetsov had another 3-point game (1 goal, 2 assists). Dmitri Orlov scored the game winning goal, his third goal in as many games.

GAME NOTES AND STATS
The Capitals improved to 15-5-1 (31 points) this season, marking the team’s second best start (in terms of points and wins) in franchise history. Washington posted a 16-5-0 record (32 points) through 21 games in 1991-92.   A game summary can be found here.  Game and player stats can be found here.

The Capitals would strike fast in the opening frame. Justin Williams would get the Caps on the board with a clean-up shot in front of the net, 1:12 into the first period.  The goal would be the earliest goal at the start of a game this season.

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The Jets would tie it up on a Tyler Myers wrister from the high slot at 6:38.

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The Capitals would get the games’ first power play as the Jets Andrew Ladd was called for hooking at 10:31 of 1st.  The Caps created several nice scoring chances, Ovi had three shots from the office, but the Caps were unable to find the back of the net.  The Jets would take the lead on another Caps defensive zone turnover, this time by T.J. Oshie.  The Jets Andrew Ladd would knock it home at the 13:01 mark.

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The Caps would go back on the power play at the 17:47 when Dustin Byfuglien was called for interference on Tom Wilson. Alex Ovechkin would tie the game on a shot from the Ovi spot.

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The first period would end in a 2-2 tie.  The Caps out-shot the Jets 15-6 in the 1st period.  Alex Ovechkin had seven shots on goal in the first period.

A quieter start to the second stanza.  Nicklas Backstrom would get the lead back for the Caps at the 10:03 mark of the period on a nice dish from Nate Schmidt.

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Jason Chimera would be called for an offensive zone penalty, and the Jets would cash in on the ensuing power play. Former Cap Mathieu Perrault would knock one in from the right circle, tying the game at 3-3, at the 13:53 mark.

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Dmitri Orlov would regain the lead for the Caps on a laser-shot from just inside the blue line at the 16:22 mark.  Orlov went 629 days without scoring a goal in the NHL. He has now scored three goals in the last three games.

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The period would end with the Caps holding on to a 4-3 lead.

A sleepy start to the first half of the third period. The Caps forced turnover high in Jets zone, Marcus Johansson gathered and made a nice feed to Evgeny Kuznetsov who beat Hutchinson for the 5-3 Caps lead at the 13:44 mark.

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