Capitals sweep back to back road trip with 4-1 win over Islanders

The Washington Capitals swept their road trip. After a win Friday night over the New Jersey Devils, they took care of business last night against the New York Islanders prevailing with a 4-1 win.

At 9:18 of the opening period, Alex Ovechkin got things started. Right off the face off draw won by Evgeny Kuznetsov, Ovi shot it from the office.

At 19:17 the Islanders tied it on a goal from Alexander Romanov. 1-1 was the score after one with the Islanders leading in shots 12-7.

At 13:05 the fourth line was rolling. John Carlson fed the puck to Nicolas Aube Kubel. NAK shot it and the puck was rolling mid air when Nic Dowd batted it in for his first goal of the season in his second game back from injury.

At 19:20 Aliaksei Protas notched his first goal of the season with a shot up the middle. Matthew Phillips and Connor McMichael had the assists. The goal came in the McNugget Minute so be sure to get your nuggets today.

3-1 was the score after two with the Caps having the edge in shots 15-9. The Caps were outshot 16-6 in the third period and 37-28 overall. But Hunter Shepard, who got the start in place of an injured Darcy Kuemper, did a brilliant job with 36 saves.

Ovechkin put the game away at 19:57 with an empty net goal. It was assisted by Beck Malenstyn and Rasmus Sandin. It was his fourth goal of the season and 826th goal of his career, putting him 68 away from tying Wayne Gretzky and 69 away from passing him.

Ovechkin’s empty net goal was the 56th of his career, which tied Gretzky. With his two goals, it was the 168th multi goal game of his career. Only Gretzky has more with 189 multi goal games in NHL history. Ovechkin is also the first player to have at least 100 career multi goal games road games between the regular season and playoffs combined. Gretzky has the next most with 92.

The Capitals return to action at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night when they host the Vegas Golden Knights at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.