Capitals down Blue Jackets for fourth win in a row

The Washington Capitals are hot right now. They love it. You love it. We love it. They earned a 4-3 win on Saturday night over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Hockey Fights Cancer night at Capital One Arena.

The first period was scoreless as shots were 9-7 in favor of the Blue Jackets.

In the second period the goals started pouring in. Johnny Gaudreau struck first for the opposition at 3:27. The Caps tied it up at 5:05. Hendrix Lapierre shot the puck. Aliaksei Protas got the rebound and fed the puck to Sonny Milano for the finish for his third goal of the season.

At 13:16 the Caps took the lead. Lapierre dished the puck to Trevor van Riemsdyk who found Protas for a snap shot below the crossbar for his second goal of the season.

At 15:47, Strome was behind the net and found Alex Ovechkin to shoot the puck right down the middle for Ovi’s fifth goal of the season and the 827th of his career. He’s now 67 away from tying Wayne Gretzky.

The second period ended with the Caps leading 3-1 while the Blue Jackets outshot the Caps 11-10.

In the third Ivan Provorov cut the deficit to one at 7:01. Then the Caps made their lead a two goal cushion thanks to a sick breakaway goal from Lapierre for his first goal of the season at 13:34. That goal by Lappy was assisted by Milano and Protas.

Justin Danforth made it a 4-3 game at 15:48 but it wasn’t enough as the Caps won 4-3. The hot hand Charlie Lindgren made 33 saves on the night. The Caps were outshot 16-9 in the third period and 36-26 overall but Lindgren was a brick wall for most of the night.

The Caps are off today and resume practice on Monday ahead of a Thanksgiving Eve matchup on Wednesday night with the Buffalo Sabres.