Capitals Down Oilers 4-2; Pheonix Copley Wins His Second Straight Game

Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals downed the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 Monday night at Capital One Arena. The win raised the Capitals record to 6-4-3 on the season. The Capitals continue their five-game home stand Wednesday night when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins. Puck drop is 7:30 PM, and is a nationally televised game.

The Capitals 4th line would strike quickly with goals from Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly to take an early 2-0 lead in the first. The Oilers would climb back into the contest with a power play goal from Connor Mc David midway through the opening frame to make it 2-1 at the first intermission. T.J. Oshie would add to the Capitals lead early in the middle frame before Leon Draisaitl potted the second Oilers goal to make it 3-2. Alex Ovechkin would add a power play goal to make it 4-2 at the second intermission. The third period would go scoreless.

STARTERS
Pheonix Copley (1-1-1, 3.55 GAA, .882 sv%) got the start in goal for the Capitals. Cam Talbot (5-4-1, 2.81 GAA, .904 sv%) started between the pipes for the Oilers. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Jaskin
Stephenson-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Vrana-Boyd-DSP

Orlov-Niskanen
Kempny-Carlson
Djoos-Bowey

Travis Boyd was recalled by the Capitals on Monday, and replaced Nic Dowd in the lineup against Edmonton.

FIRST PERIOD
The Capitals would strike quickly with a goal from Jakub Vrana just 2:44 into the opening frame. Devante Smith-Pelly and Travis Boyd would get the assists.

But the 4th line was just getting started. Exactly three minutes later, Devante-Smith Pelly would pot the second Caps goal at 5:44. Travis Boyd was credited with the lone assist.

Connor McDavid would close the gap to 2-1 with a power play goal at 10:24 of the opening frame.

The first period would close with the Caps hanging on to a 2-1 lead. The Oilers led 12-11 in shots on goal. The Capitals out-attempted the Oilers 17-10. Edmonton was 1 for 2 and the Capitals 0 for 1 on the power play.

SECOND PERIOD
The Capitals would make it 3-1 with a goal from T.J. Oshie. The goal was setup by a nice spin-pass from Nicklas Backstrom at 8:11 of the middle frame. John Carlson would be credited with the second assist.

But the Oilers would once again cut the lead to one. Leon Draisaitl would pot the Oilers second goal at 10:41 of the middle frame.

Alex Ovechkin would restore the Capitals two-goal lead with a power play goal at 13:09 of the second period. John Carlson and Evgeny Kuznetsov would be credited with the assists.

The second period would conclude with the Capitals leading 4-2. Shots on goal for the second period were 10-10. The Oilers led 22-21 after two periods. The Capitals were 1 for 2 and the Oilers 1 for 3 on the power play.

THIRD PERIOD
The Capitals and Oilers would go scoreless in the final frame.

SHAVINGS

Travis Boyd has two assists in the first period. It’s the sixth time this season a Capital has recorded two assists in the period. It also marks Boyd’s first career multi-point game. He entered the game with one point in eight career games.
Alex Ovechkin moved into a tie with Marcel Dionne (234) for 8th on the NHL’s all-time power-play goals list.
Pheonix Copley stopped 31 of 33 shots.
The Oilers outshot the Caps 33-23 for the game.
The NHL box score is here.

SCENES FROM THE DISTRICT

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