Caps come alive, blow by Flyers
The Washington Capitals showed they could get away with a slow start and still pull out another win.
Despite a sluggish beginning that forced backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer to be on top of his game, the Capitals offense came to life in Washington in a 5-0 blowout of the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday.
Washington has won a season-best nine in a row to climb atop the Metropolitan Division, Eastern Conference and NHL standings with 63 points.
The Capitals have beaten New Jersey, Ottawa (twice), Toronto, Columbus, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Philadelphia and outscored those opponents 40-11 over this stretch. They haven’t allowed an even-strength goal in 298:54 going back to the Maple Leafs game on Jan. 3.
“I think guys are enjoying coming to the rink right now,” said defenseman Matt Niskanen, who scored twice in in a span of 2:27 of the third period. “We’re getting some offense, but we’re also getting some shutouts mixed in there, too, so that’s a good sign. We’re playing really good hockey, still room to grow I think in the long term, but it’s pretty fun right now.”
It doesn’t get much more fun than four goals on seven shots in five minutes early in the third period, the onslaught the Capitals piled on the Flyers with two goals each by Niskanen and winger Justin Williams.
Grubauer was sharp eearly and on five successful penalty kills and made 24 saves, and Andre Burakovsky scored a power-play goal in the second period to fluster Philadelphia, which had 13 of the game’s first 18 shots.
“The first two periods we played excellent road periods,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said after his team’s eighth consecutive road loss. “We didn’t give up much and had a little bit better of the chances. But it got away from us in five minutes at the start of the third period.”
Goaltender Steve Mason, who was pulled after allowing five goals on 17 shots, called this a “tough stretch” and said the Flyers need to step back and get away from hockey for a few days during their bye week. They’ve lost 11 of their past 14 games.
Wild 3, Blackhawks 2 — Jason Pominville scored in the third period, Devan Dubnyk made 33 saves and visiting Minnesota beat Chicago to grab sole possession of the top spot in the Western Conference.
Nino Niederreiter and Chris Stewart also scored as Minnesota earned its fourth straight win and improved to 17-1-1 since Dec. 4. The Wild also beat the Blackhawks for the eighth straight time.
Patrick Kane scored twice for the Blackhawks and Corey Crawford made 29 stops.
Devils 2, Canucks 1 — Taylor Hall scored 1:28 into overtime to give New Jersey the win against host Vancouver.
Kyle Quincey scored the tying goal with 3:03 left in the second period and Cory Schneider stopped 21 shots to help the Devils win their second straight.
Loui Eriksson scored for the Canucks and Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves for the Canucks, losers of four straight.
Blues 2, Ducks 1 — Patrik Berglund’s second goal of the game, 51 seconds into overtime, pushed visiting St. Louis past Anaheim, which got a goal from Rickard Rakell.
Carter Hutton (22 saves) made it two wins in two nights.