Capitals Report Card: Caps Escape Golden Knights in Shootout Thriller
Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images The Washington Capitals ((37-28-9) finished their three-game road trip on a thrillingly high note. Though it wasn’t easy, they escaped past the Vegas Golden Knights (32-26-16) 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday night.
The Capitals got off to a strong start as Hendrix Lapierre opened the scoring in the first period. The team followed that up with goals from Justin Sourdif and Anthony Beauvillier for a 3-0 lead in the middle frame. However, in the same period, the Capitals went on the power play and gave up back-to-back shorthanded goals from Vegas.
The momentum soon swung towards the Golden Knights as they took a 4-3 lead early in the third. Fortunately, Dylan Strome turned out to be the hero on Saturday night, as he tied the game up at 4-4. He then followed that up with the game-winner in the skills competition.
With that, the Capitals are officially done with Western Conference opponents this season. Next up, the team returns home to face division rival Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Capitals Analysis Early in the game, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Brandon Duhaime helped recover a fumble and got the puck up to Lapierre.
Lapierre then scored on a breakaway to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead, as he and Miroshnichenko now have points in back-to-back games. Later in the period, Aliaksei Protas and former teammate Nic Dowd both went for the puck but collided head-first into each other. Both were down in visible pain, and Protas was ruled out for the rest of the night.