The Washington Capitals concluded the California portion of their road trip with a 4-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. After a shutout the other night, Ilya Samsonov was awarded another start and cashed in by stopping all 22 shots he faced.
The Caps would get contributions offensively from Conor Sheary and Alex Ovechkin twice as well as a team effort up and down the lineup. Some reinforcements arrived too as Nic Dowd and T.J. Oshie were back in the lineup.
At 2:17 Sheary got the scoring started with a nice shot coming down the ice. Daniel Sprong and Aliaksei Protas had the assists. The Caps would get two power plays in the first and would bounce back on their second try from none other than the great eight himself.
It came at 13:58 on a classic hard Ovechkin shot from the office. John Carlson and Oshie had the assists. 2-0 was the score after one and shots were even at six apiece.
The second period was scoreless as the Caps were outshot 10-7 but Sheary and Ovechkin would come through once again in the third period.
Sheary would score late in the third period at 15:10. It came on a rebound off a shot from Carlson. Sheary fell down but still shot the puck into the net. Ovechkin had the secondary assist.
At 18:56 Ovechkin would end it with an empty net goal off a fed from Dowd. 4-0 would go on to be the final. Ovechkin has 13 goals on the year while Sheary has four.
Ovechkin now has 744 goals in his career. He’s 22 away from Jaromir Jagr, 57 from Gordie Howe and 150 from Wayne Gretzky.
As for Samsonov, per Mike Vogel of WashingtonCaps.com, he’s the first goal with shutouts in consecutive starts since Braden Holtby on Jan. 5-7, 2017. He’s the first Caps goalie to accomplish this feat entirely on the road since Clint Malarchuk on Feb. 19-20, 1988.
Caps head Coach Peter Laviolette talked about Samsonov after the game:
"“He seems focused and dialed in. Everybody had the same feeling this game as they did last game, that he was just in position…He looked sharp, focused. He made the ones he was supposed to make, and he made some really tough ones to go with it.”"
The Capitals conclude their road trip against the Seattle Kraken tonight. It should be an exciting game against the NHL’s newest franchise. Puck drop is at 9 p.m. Maybe we’ll see Vitek Vanecek face his former team.