Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals fell to the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 Wednesday night at MTS Bell Centre in Winnipeg. The loss drops the Capitals record to 8-7-3 on the season. The Capitals conclude their three-game central division road trip on Friday when they face the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. Puck drop is set for 9PM ET. 

The Caps would open the scoring with a breakaway snip from Jakub Vrana, early in the first period to give the Caps a 1-0 lead at the first break. The Jets would tie the game early in the middle frame with a power play goal for a 1-1 tie at the second intermission. The Jets would grab their first lead midway through the final frame, and add an empty net goal late to give the Jets the 3-1 win.

STARTERS
Pheonix Copley (3-1-1, 2.91 GAA. .904 sv%) started in goal for the visiting Capitals. Braden Holtby was slated to start, but was scratched due to upper body injury. Copley started the previous night in Minnesota. Connor Hellebuyck (7-5-1, 2.86 GAA, .912 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Jets. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Connolly-Eller-Burakovsky
Stephenson-Boyd-Smith-Pelly

Orlov-Carlson
Siegenthaler-Niskanen
Djoos-Bowey

Michal Kempny was scratched due to illness and replaced by Jonas Siegenthaler. Travis Boyd and Dmitrij Jaskin were the healthy scratches.

Gavin McHale was the emergency goalie tonight. McHale is goaltending coach with the Univeristy of Manitoba women’s hockey team in Winnipeg.

FIRST PERIOD
The Capitals struck first with a break away goal from Jakub Vrana at 13:00 of the opening period. Madison Bowey and Dmitry Orlov were credited with the assists.

Evgeny Kuznetsov took a shot to the head early in the first frame and would leave the game and not return. Kuznetsov totalled 4:10 of ice time before leaving the game.

And that would be all of the scoring in the first frame. The Jets led in shot attempts 13-12, with the Caps lead in shots on goal 10-2.  The Caps led the faceoff winning percentage 59-41%. The Capitals were 0 for 2 and the Jets 0 for 1 on the power play.

SECOND PERIOD
The Jets would tie the game early in the middle frame with a power play goal from Mark Scheiefele at 5:05 of the second period.

The middle frame would end with the game tied 1-1. The Jets led in SOG 14-10 for the second period. The Jets out-attempted the Caps 16-15 for the second period.

THIRD PERIOD
The Jets would take their first lead with a goal from Ben Chiarot at 12:51 of the final period.

T.J. Oshie would leave the game late in the third period after he was thrown to the ice, and hit his head. There was no report on Oshie’s status at the time of this report.

The Jets would add an empty net goal late for the 3-1 win.

SHAVINGS

• The Capitals led in SOG 28-24.
• Alex Ovechkin led the Caps with 9 SOG, Nicklas Backstrom Had 5 SOG.
• Pheonix Copley stopped 21 of 23 shots for a .913 save percentage.
• Faceoffs were 50-50%.
• The Capitals were 0 for 3 and the Jets 1 for 3 on the power play.
• The NHL box score is here.

SCENES FROM ‘THE PEG’

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