Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals defeated the New York Islanders 3-2 on Thursday night at Verizon Center.  The win raised the Capitals record to 36-9-4, while the Islanders loss dropped their record to 26-17-6.  The Capitals will head to New Jersey tomorrow for their matinée game with the Devils on Saturday.

The starting lines for the Caps tonight:

Forwards:
Ovechkin–Backstrom–Oshie
Burakovsky–Kuznetsov–Williams
Chimera–Richards–Wilson
Laich–Latta–Sill

Defensemen:
Schmidt–Carlson
Alzner–Niskanen
Orlov–Chorney

Brooks Orpik missed the game due to a lower body injury he sustained on November 10th. Marcus Johansson missed the game due to a lower body injury.  Aaron Ness was a healthy scratch.  The goalie matchup for tonight’s game, provided by @capsgoalies:

QUICK TAKES
A physical contest, as one would expect.  The Capitals got off to a somewhat sluggish start as the Islanders notched the first tally.  Midway through the second period the Capitals seemed to find their legs and began to dominate in offensive zone time.  Andre Burakovsky would continue his hot streak, giving the Caps the lead in the second period on a punch-in from in front of the net.  Burakovsky now has 7 goals and 6 assists in past 14 games, 5 goals in past 4 games.  The Caps were out-skated for a good portion of the third period, but managed to grab the win late in the contest on a snip by Alex Ovechkin.  Alex Ovechkin now has 9 game-winning-goals vs. Islanders – his highest total versus any opponent. The Caps are only team in the NHL without back-to-back regulation losses. The NHL box score can be found here: The Capitals photo gallery can be found here:

The Islanders would strike quickly at the start of this one. Ex-Cap Mikhail Grabovski scored his ninth goal of the season at 1:55 of the opening frame on a rebound in front of the net.

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T.J. Oshie would tie it up for the Capitals on a nice feed from Nicklas Backstrom at the 7:28 mark of the first period.

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The first period would end deadlocked in a 1-1 tie. The Islanders led in shots on goal 9-7.

Andre Burakovsky would grab the lead for the Caps late in the second period on a rebound in front of the net at 18:42 of the middle frame.

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The second period would end with the Caps leading 2-1.  Shots on goal were tied at 14-14 after two periods of play.

The Islanders would tie the game at the 5:38 mark of the final stanza on a scrambler in front of the net, finished off by Josh Bailey.

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Alex Ovechkin would grab the lead for the Caps late in the third period on a snipe from the point at the 17:20 mark of the final frame.

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The Caps would hold on for the 3-2 win.

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