Photo: @Capitals
The Washington Capitals downed the Nashville Predators, 5-3, Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. The victory improves the Capitals record to 19-6-7 (45 points) on the season.
The Capitals opened the scoring early in the first frame with a beautiful tic-tad goal that was finished by Lars Eller. John Carlson would pot his seventh goal of the season late in the first frame to make it 2-0, and Nic Dowd would add a tally with just over a minute remaining in the period for a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
The Predators quickly tied the game with three goals in the first 7:38 of the middle frame, for a 3-3 tie at the second intermission. Evgeny Kuznetsov would score the go-ahead shorthanded goal late in the third period and Carl Hagelin would add an empty net goal to give the Capitals a 5-3 win.
STATS
STARTERS
Ilya Samsonov (11-2-0-2, 2.64 GAA, .910 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Capitals. Juuse Saros (15-8-0-1, 2.22 GAA, .924 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Predators. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:
#Caps‘ lines/pairs vs. Preds:
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
73-Sheary, 19-Backstrom, 59-Protas
24-McMichael, 20-Eller, 77-Oshie
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
6-Kempny, 57-van Riemsdyk
27-Alexeyev, 38-IrwinSamsonov vs Saros. #CapsPreds
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) December 29, 2021
Scratches: Daniel Sprong (COVID protocol), Martin Fehervary (COVID protocol), Nick Jensen (COVID protocol), Justin Schultz (COVID protocol), Dennis Cholowski (COVID protocol), Vitek Vanecek (COVID protocol) and Anthony Mantha (upper-body).
FIRST PERIOD
The Capitals opened the scoring with a beautiful tic-tac-goal finished by Lars Eller (6) at 3:15 of the first period. John Carlson (21) and Alex Ovechkin (26) had the helpers. It was the 21st time this season the Capitals scored the first goal of a game, the most in the NHL.
Lars Eller cashes in on the cross-crease dish to open the scoring up for the Capitals!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/THIzRbIQGp
— HockeyDaily365 (@HockeyDaily365) December 30, 2021
The Capitals stretched their lead to 2-0 with a rocket shot from John Carlson (7) late in the first frame. Nicklas Backstrom (2) and Dmitry Orlov (11) had the assists. The goal was prefaced by a strong stop by Ilya Samsonov on the Capitals’ end.
Ilya Samsonov picked up John Carlson with an acrobatic save, so the defenseman gave his goalie some breathing room with a goal on the other end.🤝 pic.twitter.com/TPUS1S6Rd8
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) December 30, 2021
The Capitals would add a goal from Nic Dowd (4) with just over a minute left in the period. Carl Hagelin (5) and Michal Kempny (1) had the helpers.
Nic Dowd redirects home the gorgeous Hagelin centering dish! Washington up 3 in the first!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/0WRSDgdFAI
— HockeyDaily365 (@HockeyDaily365) December 30, 2021
The period would end with the Capitals leading 3-0. The Capitals led in shots 11-6. Nashville was 0 for 1 and the Capitals 0 for 2 on the power play in the first frame.
SECOND PERIOD
The Predators quickly cut the Capitals lead to 3-1 with a tally from Yakov Trenin (6) at 1:23 of the second period and closed the gap to a single goal with a tally from Luke Kanin (5) at 7:03 of the middle frame. The Predators would then tie the game with a goal from Filip Forsburg (14) at 7:38 of the second period.
The second period would conclude with the game tied 3-3. Washington led in shots 11-8 in the middle frame. The Predators were 0 for 1 and the Capitals o for 4 on the power play after two periods of play.
THIRD PERIOD
The Capitals would finally strike again late in the third period with a shorthanded goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov (10) at 14:24 of the final frame.
Kuznetsov with all the time in the world absolutely snipes this puck. Bird celly to finish it off 🦅 pic.twitter.com/5VVAJkLOvX
— Hockey Realm (@hockey_realm) December 30, 2021
The Capitals would add an empty net goal from Carl Hagelin for the 5-3 victory.
SHAVINGS
- Lars Eller gave the Caps a 1-0 lead with his sixth goal of the year. He now has four goals in his last six games played.
- John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin each picked up the assists on Eller’s goal. With 26 assists in 32 games, Ovechkin is on pace to record 66 assists this season, which would mark the first time Ovechkin broke the 60-assist mark in a season in his career.
- Nic Dowd scored his fourth goal of the season to extend the Capitals’ lead to 3-0. Dowd has now recorded four points (2g, 2a) in his last five games.
- Michal Kempny, playing in his first NHL regular season game since March 9, 2020, recorded an assist on Dowd’s goal.
- John Carlson scored his seventh goal of the season to extend the Capitals’ lead to 2-0. With a goal and an assist in the first period, Carlson has recorded his seventh multi-point game of the season.
- Nicklas Backstrom recorded the primary assist on Carlson’s goal, his second assist in as many games this season.
- Dmitry Orlov recorded the secondary assist on Carlson’s goal, his 11th assist of the season. Orlov’s 15 points (4g, 11a) in 32 games this season rank second among Caps defensemen (Carlson: 7g-21a-28p).
That would have been a tough loss to swallow. Good they hung in and pulled it out. Onward and upward.