The Washington Capitals were edged by the Arizona Coyotes by a score of 3-2 at Capital One Arena on Saturday night to fall to 5-6-2 this season. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves against his former team.
Capitals’ Lines vs. Arizona
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano — Dylan Strome — Marcus Johansson
Connor McMichael — Lars Eller — Anthony Mantha
Aliaksei Protas — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Dmitry Orlov — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary — Nick Jensen
Erik Gustafsson — Matt Irwin
Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Injured: LW Carl Hagelin (hip, missed 13th straight game, out indefinitely); RW Tom Wilson (ACL, 13th, indefinite); C Nicklas Backstrom (hip, 13th, indefinite); RW Connor Brown (ACL, ninth, indefinite); RW T.J. Oshie (lower-body, fourth, indefinite); D John Carlson (lower-body, fourth, day-to-day)
Scratched: LW Joe Snively, RW Nicolas Aube-Kubel, D Lucas Johansen
Mantha bumped down a line with Milano making his Capitals debut while Protas also bumped down. Snively came out. The team claimed Aube-Kubel off of waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs before the game.
Arizona’s Lines
Clayton Keller — Travis Boyd — Lawson Crouse
Liam O’Brien — Jack McBain — Christian Fischer
Matias Maccelli — Nick Bjugstad — Dylan Guenther
Nick Ritchie — Barrett Hayton
Juuso Valimaki — J.J. Moser
Shayne Gostisbehere — Josh Brown
Patrik Nemeth — Troy Stecher
Dysin Mayo
Karel Vejmelka
Connor Ingram
Scratched: D Conor Timmins
Injured: LW Andrew Ladd (knee, 11th, indefinite); D Jakob Chychrun (wrist, 11th, week-to-week); C Nick Schmaltz (upper-body, 10th, week-to-week); RW Zack Kassian (lower-body, third, week-to-week)
First Period
Scoring
None
Orlov left the game with a lower-body injury and did not return.
Shots: 16-10 Washington
Other notable stats: Washington did not score on two power plays while Arizona led 8-1 in blocked shots. Each team earned seven hits.
Second Period
Scoring
8:55, 1-0 Washington (PPG): Ovechkin one-timed a shot over the blocker of Vejmelka from the left dot after Van Riemsdyk put the puck on a tee for him from the top.
Record breaker. pic.twitter.com/oY0nS9M1Iq
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 6, 2022
Shots: 23-16 Washington (including 7-6 in the period)
Other notable stats: The Capitals scored once on their first three power plays and held Arizona off on two opportunities. The Capitals led 15-11 in hits but Arizona led 11-7 in blocked shots.
Third Period
Scoring
3:23, 2-0 Washington: After Gostisbehere’s pass to Mayo down low bounced off of his skate and to Mantha, Mantha spun around and backhanded one blocker-side on Vejmelka.
𝘯 𝘦 𝘢 𝘵 pic.twitter.com/PtFSNUdFJQ
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 6, 2022
6:33, 2-1 Washington: Brown picked up a loose puck after Kuemper stopped Gostisbehere’s point shot and went backhand to forehand with a crowd in front of Kuemper, who fell.
CONFIRMED: GOOD GOAL 👏 pic.twitter.com/57wTpZJtIy
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) November 6, 2022
9:45, 2-2: Ritchie fired one bar-down from the slot glove-side after getting a cross-ice feed from Boyd.
Surprise! It’s Nick Ritchie. 😏 pic.twitter.com/joPS6KQDZf
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) November 6, 2022
19:25, 3-2 Arizona: After Keller deked around Gustafsson and wiggled down, he fed Ritchie in the slot and his wrister squeaked through Kuemper. The shot was poked home by Hayton.
UNBELIEVABLE. pic.twitter.com/wG1P3LjpgX
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) November 6, 2022
Shots: 36-26 Washington (including 13-10 in the third)
Other notable stats: The Capitals won 56% of the draws, scored once on three power plays, and led 24-20 in hits. Arizona went 0-for-three on the power-play and led 18-12 in blocked shots.
Next game: Monday vs. Edmonton Oilers (8 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)
By Harrison Brown