Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images

The Capitals jumped to an early 2-0 lead, but would need a shootout to secure the two points against the Flames, and take four of six points on the Western Canada road trip. The Capitals are now 5-3-2 after 10 games. Last season the Caps were 4-5-1 after 10 games. The Capitals now head home for a few days off before they visit the Canadiens in Montreal on Thursday night. Puck drop is 7:30 PM. 

GAME SUMMARY
As far as lineup adjustments, Reirden continued to search for a suitable replacement for Tom Wilson spot on the top line. (This was game #10 of Wilson’s 20-game suspension).  Jakub Vrana was moved up to the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov. In addition, Andre Burakovsky was promoted to the second line with Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, after scoring his first goal of the season against Edmonton on Thursday night. Madison Bowey replaced Christian Djoos on the backend and was paired with Brooks Orpik. Bowey hadn’t played since the second game of the season against Pittsburgh. Pheonix Copley made his second start of the season.

The Capitals would strike first on the end of a nice steal-and-dish by Evgeny Kuznetsov to Jakub Vrana. T.J. Oshie would add a power play goal to make it 2-0 five minutes later, but the Caps would relinquish the lead in the next two and a half minutes. The Flames would get on the board 15 seconds after the Oshie goal to make it 2-1. The Flames would tie the game 2:12 later with a power play goal from Elias Lindholm to make it 2-2 at the first intermission. Matt Niskanen would register his second goal of the season late in the middle frame to give the Caps a 3-2 lead at the second intermission. The Flames would tie the game with less than two minutes to play in regulation for a 3-3 tie at the end of regulation. The overtime period would go scoreless, with the Capitals winning it in the shootout.

Our complete game recap can be found here. The NHL box score can be found here. Stats provided by Natural Stat Trick are here.

SHOT ATTEMPTS (POSSESSION)
Nothing too eye-popping in the shot stats from this game. The Capitals continue to our-attempt their opponents. The Capitals out-attempted the Flames 14-11 (10-9 SOG) for the opening frame, 16-10 (8-6 SOG) in the second period. The Flames would out attempt the Caps 17-14 (11-8 SOG) in the final frame. The Flames surge in shot production in the final frame is indicative of Calgary trailing for most of the third period.

T.J. Oshie and Michal Kempnyled the Capitals in shots on goal with four shots each. Lars Eller, Nic Dowd and Matt Niskanen each had three shots on goal.

SHOT ATTEMPTS (DIFFERENTIAL)

SHOT ATTEMPTS (LOCATION)

SPECIAL TEAMS
The Capitals were 1 for 3 and the Flames 1 for 4 on the power play. The Capitals power play is cooling down a bit from its scorching-hot start. The Caps penalty kill still needs work to find the level of play it reached last season. It’s still early.

FACEOFFS
Calgary won the battle at the faceoff dot 55-45% (33 of 60). Chandler Stephenson was 2 for 2, Nicklas Backstrom was 8 of 18, Lars Eller was 5 of 10, Smith-Pelly was 1 for 2, Nic Dowd was 4 for 9, T.J. Oshie was 1 for 3 and Evgeny Kuznetsov was 6 for 16.

PLAYER STATS

Andre Burkovsky, who was elevated to the second line, recorded his highest ice time of the season. Dmitrij Jaskin and Brett Connolly had the least amount of ice time.

By Jon Sorensen