EDMONTON 鈥� Throwing 50 shots on net proved to be a successful recipe for the Washington Capitals on Monday.
Nic Dowd scored the game winner as the Capitals snapped a two-game losing skid with a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Washington outshot Edmonton by 20 in the win.
鈥淚t was one of our best wins of the season,鈥� Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. 鈥淚 thought it was every guy in there that played really hard and came out the right way in the first period and were doing the right things.聽
"We had gotten away from that for a couple of games. I thought we did a good job tonight of trying to push it and control the game.鈥�
Lars Eller and T.J. Oshie also scored for the Capitals (11-12-4), who have gone 2-5-3 in their last 10 road games. Charlie Lindgren made 28 saves.
鈥淚t was good, especially considering we have so many guys out,鈥� Eller said of his team鈥檚 high-octane performance. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 had that many wins in this building, It is a tough place to come in to and we gave it everything we had and it was enough today.
鈥淲e were playing to our identity with good forechecking and forcing some turnovers and having some long times in the zone cycling and long attacks. That is the stuff we are doing when we are playing our best and we saw some of that today. There were a lot of positives.鈥�
Brett Kulak and Connor McDavid replied for the Oilers (14-12-0), who have lost two of their last three. Stuart Skinner stopped 47 shots.
With yet another bad start, Edmonton was fortunate to emerge from the first period without surrendering a goal, despite being blitzed by Washington, getting outshot 22-12.
鈥淲e come in here and we talk about it every day,鈥� Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse said of his team鈥檚 rough starts. 鈥淲e sit here after the game, talk about it over and over and over. 鈥� We want to have good starts each and every night but, you know, we're sitting here and it's a part of our game. We're almost a quarter of the way through the season.
鈥淭he more we just talk away and pester at it, we need to just show up and play. Relax, pin our ears back and come out on the on the attack.鈥�
Skinner was rock solid in the opening frame, particularly during a Washington power play where he made seven saves in one sequence, including a pair of one-timers from Alex Ovechkin and an opportunity in tight for Oshie.
Despite the slow start, the Oilers opened the scoring 1:44 into the second period as Kulak unleashed a blast from the point with traffic in front for his first of the season.
Washington levelled the score just under six minutes later. Leon Draisaitl coughed the puck up in his own zone, giving Eller a clear path to the net and he beat Skinner following a deke for his fourth of the campaign.
Edmonton regained the advantage with 4:35 to play in the middle frame when McDavid picked off a John Carlson pass and blazed up ice on a breakaway before beating Lindgren through his legs for a short-handed marker.聽
McDavid's 22nd of the year pushed his goal streak to five games. It is the best start through 26 games of his career, with his previous best being 16 goals in that span.
The Capitals answered back on the same power play, however, on a perfect three-way passing effort that was finished off when Oshie blasted a feed from Dylan Strome into the net. The shot totals were 41-19 for the visitors after 40 minutes.
Washington grabbed its first lead 7:13 into the third period as a buzzing Aliaksei Protas came in on a partial break, but instead dropped it back to Dowd, who wired home his fourth to give his team the eventual win.
NOTES:
Both teams have been badly hit with injuries. Missing from the Washington lineup were Nicklas Backstrom (hip surgery), Connor Brown (torn ACL), Carl Hagelin (hip surgery), Tom Wilson (torn ACL), Beck Malenstyn (upper body), Dmitry Orlov (lower body), Darcy Kuemper (upper body) and Martin Fehervary (upper body). 鈥� Hunter Shepard was called up from the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League to serve as the backup goalie with Kuemper getting injured in their last game against Calgary. 鈥� The Oilers were missing Evander Kane (wrist surgery), Warren Foegele (undisclosed), Ryan McLeod (undisclosed) and Zach Hyman, who took a stick to the head in Saturday鈥檚 contest against Montreal. The Oilers did get some good news, with Kailer Yamamoto able to return after missing 11 games with an undisclosed injury.
UP NEXT:
Both teams return to action on Wednesday. The Capitals close out a six-game road trip in Philadelphia against the Flyers. The Oilers play the third of a four-game homestand when they host the Arizona Coyotes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press
