The Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Monday night at Verizon Center. The win raised the Caps record to 54-16-5 (113 points) and clinched the President’s Trophy for the Capitals. The Capitals now hit the road for a three-game stretch, starting with Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Puck-drop is 8:00 PM.

The starting lines for the Capitals:

Offensive Lines
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Williams
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Chimera-Johansson-Beagle
Winnik-Richards-Wilson

Defensive Pairs
Schmidt-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov

Michael Latta, Taylor Chorney and Stanislav Galiev were the healthy scratches. Tonight’s goalie match-up, provided by @washingtoncaps:

QUICK TAKES
The Capitals scoring woes continued from the start of this one, although they were the first to score in the opening frame, only to give up a quick answer to the Jackets. The power play also continues to struggle. Dmitri Orlov made another damaging turnover in the defensive zone that led to an opponents goal. The Caps would add another goal by Tom Wilson early in the third period to take the lead 2-1. The Caps would add additional goals by T.J. Oshie and an empty net goal by Nicklas Backstrom to seal-up the 4-1 victory. The win clinched the Caps a second Presidential Trophy in franchise history. Team stats for the game can be found here: Player stats for the game can be found here: Face-off stats for the game can be found here: Photos from the game can be found here:

A fast-moving first period. Tom Wilson was called for tripping at 2:43 giving the Blue Jackets the game’s first power play, but the Caps penalty kill units would squash the Jacket’s man-advantage. Shots on goal were even at 5-5 at the 10:00 mark of the opening frame. T.J. Oshie had the biggest hit of the first period.

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Justin Williams would finally brake the scoring drought for the Caps by knocking one home at the 16:30 mark of the opening frame.

Unfortunately the Jackets would strike back quickly on a goal by Cam Atkinson at 18:06. The goal was setup by a turnover by Dmitry Orlov.

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The first period would end in a 1-1 tie. Capitals led in shots on goal 13-12.

The Jackets were called for tripping at 2:55 of the middle frame, giving the Caps their second power play of the game. The Caps had pretty decent zone time, but would be unable to find the twine, registering several shots but no shots on goal. The Capitals were whistled for their first penalty of the second period, boarding on Tom Wilson at 6:38 of the middle frame. The Caps penalty kill would come up strong once again, allowing no shots on goal. 5-on-5 play was fairly even in the second period. The Caps would return to the power play at 12:39 on a slashing call on the Jackets, but once again the power play would come up empty. The second period would end without a score, remaining tied at 1-1 at the second intermission. Caps led in shots on goal 21-16 after two periods of play.

The Blue Jackets were called for holding the stick, giving the Caps their third power play of the game at 1:00 of the final period, but the Caps could do very little with the man-advantage. Tom Wilson would break the tie at 3:46 of the third on a knock-in of a rebound.

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T.J. Oshie would stretch the lead to 3-1 on a tip-in of a rocket from Matt Niskanen at 14:26.

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Nicklas Backstrom would add an empty net goal at 17:35. Cap would win 4-1 and clinch the PResident’s Trophy.

#Caps clinch best record in #NHL, and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs @wusa9pic.twitter.com/1dNIyRmtd6

— Tom Hunsicker (@TomSportsWUSA9) March 29, 2016