Caps ride 4-goal second period to win over first-place Jets originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Winnipeg Jets entered play Sunday as one of the hottest teams in the NHL, riding a four-game winning streak and 8-2-0 record over the previous 10 games on their way up to the top of the Central Division standings. Then, they ran into the Capitals.
Washington topped the Jets 5-2 to extend its own winning streak to four games. Despite playing on the road for the seventh time in their last eight games and losing several players to injury over that stretch, the Capitals (14-12-4) took control of the contest with a four-goal second period as Charlie Lindgren outdueled Connor Hellebuyck at Canada Life Centre.
Though neither team scored in a first period dominated by the two goaltenders, the Capitals’ third line of Aliaksei Protas, Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway impressed with several shifts that nearly resulted in goals. They kept the pressure up in the second and broke through three minutes in when Dowd set up Trevor van Riemsdyk with a sweet feed into the slot.
Five minutes later, the Capitals got their first power-play chance of the evening. Though they didn’t score with nearly a minute on the 5-on-3, Evgeny Kuznetsov made sure they didn’t leave empty-handed. John Carlson set him up with a pass from the point and Kuznetsov fired a well-placed backhander past Hellebuyck’s glove.
The Jets then appeared to get some momentum when Lars Eller was called for a double minor on a high stick, sending him to the box for four minutes. Washington’s penalty kill unit decided otherwise, limiting Winnipeg to just two shots and scoring a shorthanded goal on a penalty shot by Marcus Johansson.
Eller, playing in his 900th career NHL game, then made up for his earlier penalty by scoring on a rebound created by Anthony Mantha. The tally marked Eller’s third goal in his last four games and his fifth point over his last seven.
Winnipeg made it a game with a pair of goals by wingers Adam Lowry and Pierre-Luc Dubois early in the third period, but the Capitals held on from there to clinch the win with Alex Ovechkin scoring an empty-netter to ice it. Lindgren has been the winning goalie for all four of the wins on their current streak, raising his record on the season to 6-3-2 with a .910 save percentage and 2.79 goals against average.
The Capitals picked up two points to bring their total up to 32. With most of the Eastern Conference having the day off Sunday, the win pulled them within four points of the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan Division and one point back of the New York Rangers for the second Wild Card spot in the East.
