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Washington Capitals Bounce Back, Blow Out St. Louis Blues, 8-1; Jakob Chychrun Notches Goal, Assist In Return; Connor McMichael Scores Ninth In Last Nine

By Harrison Brown·
Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues by a score of 8-1 at Enterprise Center on Saturday to improve to 10-4-0 this season, which is good to tie the Carolina Hurricanes (who have a game in hand) and New Jersey Devils (played three more games than Washington) for the Metropolitan Division lead. Goaltender Logan Thompson made 24 saves in the win and became the first goaltender in franchise history to win his first eight starts with the Capitals.

Washington’s Lines

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane – Michael Sgarbossa – Jakub Vrana
Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Taylor Raddysh

Jakob Chychrun – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Matt Roy
Martin Fehervary – Trevor Van Riemsdyk

Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

  • Scratched
    • C Hendrix Lapierre
    • D Dylan McIlrath
    • D Alexander Alexeyev
  • Injured
    • LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
    • C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
    • RW T.J. Oshie (back)
  • Notes
    • Chychrun returned from a five-game absence due to a lower-body injury suffered in Washington’s 5-3 win over the New York Rangers on October 29

St. Louis’ Lineup

Pavel Buchnevich – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Alexandre Texier – Dylan Holloway – Jake Neighbours
Brandon Saad – Oskar Sundqvist – Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko – Radek Faksa – Nathan Walker

Ryan Suter – Colton Parayko
Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Justin Faulk
Scott Perunovich – Matthew Kessel

Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer

  • Scratched
    • C Zack Bolduc
  • Injured
    • C Robert Thomas (ankle)
    • D Philip Broberg (knee)
    • RW Mathieu Joseph (lower-body)
    • D Nick Leddy (lower-body)

First Period

Scoring

  • 0:59, 1-0 Washington: McMichael weaved around two Blues defenders and streaked down the middle where he snapped a wrister high-glove on Binnington after entering the offensive zone. McMichael has scored eight goals in his last nine games dating back to October 23. McMichael’s nine goals at five-on-five are tied with Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson for the most in the NHL. With the primary assist, Chychrun’s 14 points (four goals) in 23 career games against the Blues are tied for the most points he has recorded against a single opponent (Minnesota Wild: 10-4-14 in 25 games).
  • 7:07, 1-1: Perunovich snapped a shot above Thompson’s glove from the slot after Kessel faked a shot from the right point and fed him down low off of an offensive zone faceoff win.

Stats

  • 10-10 in shots
  • .571 St. Louis on faceoffs
  • St. Louis went 0-for-two on power plays
  • 10-9 Washington in hits
  • 2-1 Washington in blocked shots
  • 5-4 St. Louis in giveaways
  • 1-0 Washington in takeaways
Graphics: Natural StatTrick

Second Period

  • Off of the start, Binnington went out and played the puck but coughed it up to Raddysh, who was all alone. He denied Raddysh with his stick.
  • At 6:39, Thompson slid across to flash the glove on Saad in front off of a cross-ice pass on a two-on-one rush.
  • With 1:58 left, Thompson denied Schenn with the pad and then again with the glove in front of him after turning away Parayko’s slapper from the left dot.

Scoring

  • 7:42, 2-1 Washington: Ovechkin ripped a wrister to the top left corner from the left dot after Strome fed Protas down the right wing and Protas quickly sent the puck across the offensive zone to Ovechkin. Ovechkin has scored seven goals in his last seven games. With his eighth helper, Protas, who registered a career-high 23 assists in 78 games last season, is over a third of the way toward his assist total from the 2023-24 season just 14 games into the current campaign. Ovechkin has now scored 32 goals in his last 50 games (0.64 per game) dating back to January 27, which is tied for the third-most in the NHL in that span. Ovechkin’s goal marked his 20th goal in 27 career games against the Blues, making St. Louis the 17th different franchise that he has scored 20 or more goals against in his career.
  • 10:53, 3-1: Chychrun wristed a shot from the left dot past the blocker of Binnington after Dubois circled around the ice down low and laid a cross-ice pass to him. With a goal and an assist, Chychrun has registered his second multi-point performance of the season and the 41st of his career. With the secondary assist, Wilson has five points (one goal) in his last six games. Dubois recorded his 350th career point (146-204-350 in 530 games). Dubois, the third overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, ranks sixth in his draft class in goals and seventh in points.

Stats

  • 20-14 St. Louis in shots
    • 11-4 in the second
  • .586 St. Louis on faceoffs
  • St. Louis did not score on three power plays
    • Washington did not get an opportunity
  • 21-15 Washington in hits
  • 12-3 Washington in blocked shots
  • 14-14 in giveaways

Third Period

Scoring

  • 2:09, 4-1 (PPG): Ovechkin wristed a shot into a wide open goal from the low left dot after Strome got a rebound off of Ovechkin’s first shot in front that Binnington turned aside and fed him from the right slot. It marks Ovechkin’s 175th career multi-goal game. With two assists tonight, Strome has now assisted on all 10 of Ovechkin’s goals this season. The only other Capitals teammate to record assists on at least nine consecutive Ovechkin goals is Backstrom (11 from 2010-11 to 2011-12). Strome has recorded at least one point in 12 of Washington’s 14 games, including seven multi-point performances. With his second helper of Saturday’s contest, Wilson earned his first multi-assist performance of the season and the 24th of his career.
  • 3:51, 5-1: Sandin slammed Sgarbossa’s feed from in front of him in the low slot after Sgarbossa retrieved the puck out of a wall battle, was hooked on a breakaway, and threw it back to Sandin. It marks the third time Sandin has scored in back-to-back games (1/27/2024-2/6/2024: two; 2/28/2022-3/2/2022: two).
  • 10:20, 6-1 (PPG): McMichael bursted in on a semi-breakaway and swept the puck around the left pad of Binnington for his second of the game after Strome sent him in from the slot. McMichael earned his third multi-goal performance in 14 games this season. McMichael entered the season with two multi-goal games in his first 155 career games.
  • With 7:49 to go, Thompson sprawled across the crease to rob Buchnevich, who had a wide open net, with his arm after denying Schenn with the glove.
  • 16:27, 7-1: Sgarbossa tipped Mangiapane’s pass from down the middle in on the backhand after driving to the net.
  • 16:45, 8-1: Carlson fought off a defender entering the offensive zone before driving to the net and throwing the puck at the goal. It went off of Duhaime’s left skate and slipped in at the left post. Carlson tied Suter (685) for the eighth-most points by an American-born defenseman in NHL history.

Stats

  • 27-25 Washington in shots
    • Including 13-5 in the third
  • .538 St. Louis on faceoffs
  • Washington finished two-for-two on power plays
    • St. Louis 0-for-three
  • 25-18 St. Louis in hits
  • 18-7 Washington in blocked shots
  • 22-21 Washington in giveaways
  • 3-1 St. Louis in takeaways

Next game: Wednesday vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (7:30 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)

By Harrison Brown