Washington Capitals beat Golden Knights, win sixth straight
The Washington Capitals defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-2 on Saturday night at Capital One Arena to win their sixth in a row.
The Washington Capitals are easily the best team in hockey and they continued to roll with a 5-2 win on home ice over the Vegas Golden Knights.
58 seconds into the contest Evgeny Kuznetsov soared down the ice and caught a pass from Dmitry Orlov and finished for the breakaway goal and whipped out his wings for the bird celebration. For Kuznetsov, it was his sixth goal of the season.
Jakub Vrana was credited with the secondary assist and he set up Tom Wilson at 5:53 to double Washington’s lead. Vrana intercepted the puck and quickly tapped it to Wilson, who shot it past Vegas netminder Marc-Andre Fleury.
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The Golden Knights got one back at 8:57 with a goal from Max Pacioretty. 2-1 would be the score heading into the first intermission. The Capitals outshot the Golden Knights 11-7.
The Caps extended their lead at 15:32 with Travis Boyd finding a wide open Jonas Siegenthaler for his first NHL goal. It came right in the left face-off circle with a quick snap shot.
The Golden Knights got a power play when Garnet Hathaway was called for elbowing Pacioretty. They pulled within one thanks to Reilly Smith. The score would be 3-2 Capitals entering the final period. The Golden Knights had the edge in shots in the second period 13-8.
In the third the Caps went on the power play when Jon Merrill was called for slashing Kuznetsov. On the attack the Capitals struck with a shot from Nicklas Backstrom trickling through the net at 11:30. John Carlson had the primary assist which was a nice backhanded feed while Kuznetsov had the secondary.
The Capitals capped off their scoring with Backstrom’s second goal of the night, an empty netter with 46 seconds left. T.J. Oshie and Carlson were credited with the helpers.
“I think we’re working together as a team. We’re doing all the details right. We’re trying to follow the system that the coaches want us to play. I feel like when you have confidence like we have … we’re just trying to keep going and get better every day. So far, so good.”
5-2 would go on to be the final. The Capitals outshot the Golden Knights 15-12 in the third and 34-32 overall. Braden Holtby stopped 30 of 32 shots in the win for a .938 save percentage.
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The Capitals will host the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night at 7 p.m.