The Washington Capitals took care of business on the road last night with a win over the Florida Panthers by the final of 4-1. You can catch up on the recap here. You can also check out our offensive grade over here. Before we wrap up this contest let's talk about the defense.
In his home state it was new defenseman Jakob Chychrun who stole the show with a game winning goal. He also set up the game tying goal late in the first period. His game winning goal on the power play was the first by a Washington defenseman in more than a month, since John Carlson scored the season opening goal against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 12.
Chychrun additionally added a second assist on the first of two Caps empty net goals to seal the win. It woul dbe his third multi point game and first as a member of the Caps. It gave them their first win in two games whlie the Panthers drop to four in a row. Special teams made the difference as well.
The Caps would kill off all Florida power plays and Chychrun's game winner would come on the power play which was the first time in 14 wins that the Cpas game winner came with the extra man advantage.
The only defensive miscue really was when the Caps fell down a goal in the early half of the first period as Niko Mikkola scored his first goal of the season. Other than that miscue Logan Thompson was brilliant as he stopped the other 20 that he faced for a .952 save percentage, earning himself the second star of the game behind Chychrun who was named number one.
Grade A: The Caps defense was stellar and it capped off another good performance from Logan Thompson. The win vaults the Caps as they next take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. on TNT and MAX.