Caps beat Islanders, Trotz
NEW YORK: Tom Wilson scored twice, Braden Holtby stopped 32 shots and the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders and former coach Barry Trotz 4-1 on Monday night for their season-high sixth straight win.
Nic Dowd and Alex Ovechkin also scored for Washington, who won after giving up the first goal for the fifth time during their win streak that has catapulted the defending champions to first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Valtteri Filppula scored and Thomas Greiss finished with 20 saves for the Islanders, who lost for the third time in five games.
Trotz was facing the Capitals for first time since leading them to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title in June.
Trotz also guided Washington to the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and then resigned in a contract dispute and subsequently signed with Islanders.
Todd Rierden — who was on Trotz’s staff during his four years in Washington, including the last two as associated head coach — then took over.
At New York, Marc Staal, Lias Andersson, Chris Kreider, and Mika Zibanejad scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves for the Rangers who beat the Senators 4-2.
The Rangers extended their dominance at Madison Square Garden, improving to 8-1-0 at home in their last nine games.
At Detroit, Pierre-Luc Dubois scored two goalsas Columbus raced to a threegoal lead in the first period and held on for a 7-5 win. Josh Anderson, Artemi Panarin, Markus Nutivaara, Boone Jenner and Seth Jones also scored for Columbus.