Capitals Fall to Kings 4-2, Lose Third Straight

Photo: NHL

The Washington Capitals fell to the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 Saturday night at Staples Center. The loss dropped the Capitals record to 44-16-7 (95 points). The Capitals next travel across town for a tilt with the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night. Puck drop is 9:30 p.m.

Philipp Grubauer got the start in goal for the Caps. Braden Holtby will get the start Sunday night against the Anaheim Ducks.

Andre Burakovsky missed his 11th consecutive game due to a hand injury.

Nate Schmidt and Taylor Chorney were the healthy scratches for the Caps.

This was the second of three games on the west coast for the Capitals.

QUICK NOTES

Jakub Vrana scored his third career NHL goal. All goals have come on the power play.
Kings PK was 48-of-50 over previous 20 games, prior to Vrana’s power play goal.
Shattenkirk extended his point-streak to 4 games.
Kevin Shattenkirk was called for three penalties in the game.
Caps are 5-5-1 since returning from the bye week.
Caps haven’t scored more than 2 goals in 9 of their 11 games since the bye.
First time Caps have lost three straight games since February, 2015.

FIRST PERIOD
The Capitals would notch the game’s first tally with a power play goal by Jakub Vrana at 4:35 of the opening frame.

The Kings would tie the game on a goal by Marian Gaborik at the 15:30 mark of the opening frame.

The period would end with the game tied 1-1. The Kings led the Caps 9-4 in shots on goal for the first frame.

SECOND PERIOD
T.J. Oshie would give the Caps a 2-1 lead on a clean-up goal from in front of the net at 0:47 of the middle frame. The goal was setup by a nice rush by Marcus Johansson.

Unfortunately the lead would only last a few minutes, as Anze Kopitar would add a power play goal at the 7:20 mark of the middle frame.

The second period would come to a close with the game tied 2-2. The Kings outshot the Caps 8-7 for the second period, and led 17-11 after two periods of play.

THIRD PERIOD
The Kings would grab the lead on a beautiful dangle by Adrian Kempe at the 8:46 mark of the final frame. This was Kempe’s first goal in the NHL.