Capitals bounce back, shut out Predators

Two days after getting shutout since January of last season, the Washington Capitals delivered a shutout performance on their end on the road against the Nashville Predators. 3-0 was the final score as two young bucks and an OG scored while Darcy Kuemper stopped everything in his sight.

The first period was scoreless as the Caps led in shots 16-11 and got some good chances. Both goalies were on their A game. But there was not one but two scares.

T.J. Oshie looked like he pulled something while he chased the puck in the offensive zone on a Caps power play. He retreated back when the Predators got a shorthanded chance and went to the locker room.

Then John Carlson fell awkwardly in the left corner of the defensive zone while trying to get the puck away from former Capitals prospect Zach Sanford. He only played for seven seconds after that.

Neither player returned to the game.

The fourth line helped the Caps draw first blood in the second period and they never looked back. On a feed from Nic Dowd charging toward the net, Beck Malenstyn put it in for his first goal of the season at 12:49.

1-0 was the score after two with shots even in the second period at 10 apiece.

At 6:44 in the third period the Caps doubled their lead with Aliaksei Protas’ second goal of the season. The play was set up from Conor Sheary and Nick Jensen in front of the net on some good puck movement in a scrum.

At 17:15 Alex Ovechkin put the game away with an empty net goal with Dmitry Orlov providing the assist. It was Ovi’s fourth of the season and 784th of his career. He’s now 17 goals from Gordie Howe and 110 from Wayne Gretzky.

We mentioned Kuemper earlier, he played lights out with 34 saves. It was a much better performance from him than we’ve seen so far and tonight showed why the Caps gave him that big money over the summer.

On Halloween night the Caps finish their four game road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes.