Capitals sweep road trip, win sixth straight
For the first time in the Alex Ovechkin era the Washington Capitals came, saw, and conquered the California road trip.
In a rematch with the Anaheim Ducks where players kept the saliva to themselves this time, the Washington Capitals got a huge 3-2 win thanks to Jakub Vrana answering in the third period less than a minute after the Ducks tied it.
The Capitals have won six in a row and all four games on their road trip including all three in California.
Their latest win improves their record to 22-4-5 with 49 points, three ahead of the Boston Bruins who they’ll see next week.
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Head coach Todd Reirden told Capitals senior writer Mike Vogel after the game:
“That was impressive work by our team. Three totally different games, three totally different ways to try to win and get the outcome we wanted.”
The Caps got on the board at the nine minute mark of the first period with a sharp angle shot from the right side of the net by Travis Boyd for his second goal of the year.
Boyd told the media after the game:
“I think we’ve been creating chances every single night. Sometimes they just don’t go in, and you’ve got to stay with it. We were lucky enough to get one in tonight.”
Carl Hagelin, playing in his third game since his return from an upper-body injury, had the primary assist right behind the net while Dmitry Orlov had the secondary. The Caps were outshot 14-12 but had the 1-0 edge heading into the locker room for the break.
In the second the Caps doubled their lead on the power play with Evgeny Kuznetsov’s 12th goal of the season from the right face-off circle at 5:10. John Carlson and Vrana had the helpers.
The Ducks got on the board at 17:03 from Ryan Getzlaf and 2-1 would be the score heading to the second intermission. The Caps had the edge in shots in the second 15-8.
Adam Henrique tied it 45 seconds into the final period before the Caps answered back at 1:37 with a backhanded shot from Jakub Vrana that he executed in a great drive to the net.
The Caps outshot the Ducks 9-7 in the third period and 36-29 overall. Braden Holtby had another solid outing in net with a 27 save performance for a .931 save percentage.
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The Capitals return home beginning Monday night as they host Metropolitan Division foe Columbus Blue Jackets with a 7 p.m. puck drop from Capital One Arena.