Capitals give up five unanswered goals in loss to Senators

The Washington Capitals had their foot on the gas pedal in the first 20 minutes of last night’s game against the Ottawa Senators. But in the final 40 minutes they took their foot off of it and it made them pay in a 5-2 loss.

Both of Washington’s goals came in the first period on the power play as they got a 5 on 3 opportunity and made the most of it. After a terrible power play to start the season, it seems like the man advantage has improved. But we won’t know for sure until a few weeks from now.

Both goals came 34 seconds apart. First it was T.J. Oshie after a great setup from Marcus Johansson. MoJo flipped the puck behind the net backhanded to a charging Oshie to put it in for his second goal of the season at 10:01. John Carlson had the secondary assist.

The Caps doubled their lead at 10:35 with a blast from the right face off circle by Anthony Mantha. It was Mantha’s third goal of the season and it was assisted by Dmitry Orlov and Conor Sheary.

2-0 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 12-7. Things got real ugly after that.

In the second the Caps were outshot 15-5 and 22-7 in the third period making the total shots 44-24 in favor of the Senators.

While the power play was good the penalty kill was bad. In the second period they gave up two power play goals to Drake Batherson both times with the damage coming at 5:48 and 7:39 respectively.

Shane Pinto gave the Senators the lead for good at 5:53. Then Tyler Motte and Alex DeBrincat put the game away in the final minute.

Oshie told the media after the game:

“They made a good push in the second there. A couple tough penalties on me and they capitalized on those two …. I thought we played better in the third not great but just a really bad second period cost us.”

The Caps look to bounce back on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Kings at Capital One Arena.