Capitals down Blue Jackets in final preseason road game

The Washington Capitals defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second to last preseason game and their final one on the road. They meet again on Saturday night at Capital One Arena.

Beck Malenstyn put the Caps up 1-0, poking one through in front of the net with heavy traffic at 8:14. Riley Sutter and Alex Alexeyev had the assists.

At 12:04 Aliaksei Protas made it 2-0 finishing off a feed from Chase Priskie. 2-0 was the score after 20 with the Caps leading in shots 17-5.

In the second period at 1:25 Brendan Gaunce got the home team on the board. 2-1 was the score after two as the Blue Jackets outshot the Caps 11-8.

Sutter cleaned amp a rebound on Connor McMichael’s shot while shorthanded for a 3-1 lead at 14:55. At 17:51 Hendrix Lapierre hit an empty net goal. Marcus Bjork made it a 4-2 game at 18:51. 4-2 Caps would be the final.

The Caps had the edge in shots 13-6 in the third quarter and 38-22 overall.

For Sutter, his goal which would go on to be the game winner was very significant. The Caps put him on waivers on Tuesday. He cleared and joined the Hershey Bears but got called back up before Thursday’s preseason game along with Ethen Frank and Chase Priskie.

Sutter talked about the game winning goal to the media:

"“I was kinda caught by surprise to be honest. I didn’t think I was going to have that much time. No one from their team was really going for the puck. I think I heard [Lucas Johansen] or someone yelling ‘Go!’ and I just tried to get up there as quick as I could.”"

There were several cuts just announced this afternoon and we are going to break it all down here in just a little bit. There’s one more preseason game and it’s tomorrow night at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.