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Nashville Nips Capitals, 3-2; Aube-Kubel Scores Second In As Many Nights

By Harrison Brown·
Photo: John McCreary/Getty Images

The Washington Capitals fell to the Nashville Predators by a score of 3-2 at Capital One Arena on Friday night. As a result of the loss, Washington had their point-streak end at nine games (8-0-1). Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 19 saves in the loss.

Capitals’ Lines vs. Nashville

Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Marcus Johansson — Lars Eller — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Anthony Mantha — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

Erik Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Martin Fehervary — Matt Irwin

Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper

Scratched: C Aliaksei Protas, D Alexander Alexeyev, LW Joe Snively

Injured: D John Carlson (upper-body, missed sixth straight game, out indefinitely); RW Connor Brown (ACL, 38th, indefinite); LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 42nd, indefinite); RW Tom Wilson (ACL, 42nd, day-to-day); C Nicklas Backstrom (hip, 42nd, day-to-day)

Dowd came in for Protas after missing Thursday’s 6-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets for the birth of his second child. Alexeyev drew out in favor of Irwin.

Nashville’s Lines

Filip Forsberg — Juuso Parssinen — Colton Sissons
Yakov Trenin — Ryan Johansen — Matt Duchene
Nino Niederreiter — Thomas Novak — Mikael Granlund
Mark Jankowski — Cody Glass — Tanner Jeannot

Ryan McDonagh — Roman Josi
Mattias Ekholm — Alexandre Carrier
Jeremy Lauzon — Dante Fabbro

Kevin Lankinen
Juusse Saros

Scratched: D Roland McKeown

Injured: LW Cole Smith (upper-body, fourth, day-to-day); D Mark Borowiecki (upper-body, 31st, indefinite)

First Period

Scoring

4:10, 1-0 Nashville: After Gustafsson gave the puck away to Novak at the left half-wall, he walked in down the slot and ripped a shot blocker-side on Lindgren.

9:52, 1-1: After Orlov blasted a shot that got stopped by Lankinen, Sheary got the rebound in front and put it off of the right post. Milano was right there to bury it into a wide net goal as a power play expired. It was Milano’s 100th career NHL point. The 26-year-old has two goals and three points in his last three games. Sheary has tallied eight assists in his last seven games. 10 of Sheary’s 17 assists this season have been primary assists.

15:09, 2-1 Nashville: Trenin batted one down out of midair into an empty net on a rebound in front after Lindgren turned aside Lauzon‘s wrister from the right dot with the pad.

Shots: 15-9 Washington

Other notable stats: Nashville won 62% of the faceoffs while Washington led 10-6 in hits. No goals were scored on three power-play opportunities (Nashville had two of them). Nashville, who led 9-3 in blocked shots, was also on the board for one giveaway while Washington was credited with three.

Second Period

Scoring

11:07, 2-2: Aube-Kubel steemed through over the offensive blueline, dangled around Niederreiter, and fired a shot through the five-hole of Lankinen with a defender on both of his sides. Gustafsson has recorded 14 points (six goals) in his last 10 games. Only Erik Karlsson (one goal, 15 points) has more points among NHL defensemen.

Mantha played just 23 seconds in the final 12 minutes of the period.

Shots: 21-17 Washington (8-7 in the second)

Other notable stats: Washington did not score on two power plays but led 21-19 in hits and 7-2 in takeaways. Nashville led 13-10 in blocked shots.

Third Period

Scoring

16:44, 3-2 Nashville: McDonagh deked and buried one into a wide open net after Johansen sauced one over the stick of Van Riemsdyk from the half-wall.

Shots: 32-22 Washington (including 11-5 in the third)

Other notable stats: Nashville won 60% of the faceoffs and Washington was held off of the board on three power plays. Washington led 32-28 in hits and 10-3 in takeaways. Nashville led 20-16 in blocked shots and had six giveaways while Washington tallied nine.

Next game: Sunday vs. Columbus (5 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)

By Harrison Brown