Hendrix Lapierre became the youngest Capital in nearly a decade to record a three-point game, and his linemates each had multi-point games as well, leading Washington to its fourth straight victory, a 4-3 triumph over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night at Capital One Arena. Lapierre had a goal and two assists to earn first star honors on Saturday, and linemate Aliaksei Protas also had a goal and two assists while Sonny Milano had a goal and an assist.
Back in the lineup after a three-game absence and filling in for an ailing Evgeny Kuznetsov (illness), Lapierre made the most of his sudden Saturday opportunity. Ironically, Kuznetsov (three assists) is the most recent Capitals’ rookie to record a three-point game; he did it against Vancouver here on March 14, 2014.
“To have a game like tonight – with three points – and essentially earn two points for the team,” begins Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s one thing to do a few things – and Pro as well, and Sonny as well – but to do those things and to chip in with a goal, obviously that’s huge and important. But the guys recognize when you single-handedly get the team two points. And that’s what happened.”
For Columbus, it was another tough setback in another tight game. The Jackets have held a lead in each of their last seven games, but they haven’t won any of them.
“It’s getting old,” says Jackets’ coach Pascal Vincent. “It’s getting old to shoot ourselves in the foot. We do so many good things – and I’m repeating myself; just play the tape of the last game. We do a lot of good things; we’re playing the right way. And yeah, we make mistakes, and the other team makes mistakes as well.
“But then we make those mistakes at the wrong time, and it’s costing us games, and it’s costing us points.”
The Caps can relate to that; they started the season 1-3-1. But after Saturday’s win, Washington 8-1-1 in its last 10, and it occupies second place in the Metropolitan Division standings.
For the first time in six games, the Caps didn’t light the lamp first. Following a scoreless first frame, Columbus got on the board first, doing so on a delayed penalty in the early minutes of the second period. Playing in his 700th career NHL game, Jackets’ winger Johnny Gaudreau staked his team to a 1-0 lead at 3:27 of the second with a clapper from between the tops of the circles. Gaudreau’s goal ended a Washington shutout spell of 124 minutes and 10 seconds, a streak that spanned three games and included the work of two goaltenders.
Washington needed less than two minutes with which to answer the Gaudreau goal. For the second time in the last three Saturday nights, Milano bit the hand that once fed him, scoring from a difficult angle to the left of Columbus netminder Elvis Merzlikins. From just above the goal line, Milano took a cross-ice feed from Protas and put a precision shot into the far corner of the cage, squaring the score at 1-1 at 5:05 of the second.
Lapierre collected his first NHL assist with the secondary helper on the Milano goal.
Protas pushed the Caps’ lead to 2-1 with a rush goal at 13:16 of the second. Trevor van Riemsdyk sent Protas into Columbus ice, and from the left dot, the big winger beat Merzlikins with a shot just under the crossbar.
With the two teams playing 4-on-4 hockey late in the frame, the Caps padded their lead. Dylan Strome made an excellent play on the forecheck, winning the puck behind the Jackets’ net and firing a sharp backhand feed to the slot for Alex Ovechkin, who had more than enough time and space to notch career goal No. 827 at 15:47 of the period.
In the not-too-distant past, second periods were highly problematic for the Capitals. In the first six games of the season, the Caps were outscored by a combined 14-3 in the middle period. They yielded at least one second-period goal in five of those six games, and the opposition put up three or more in the middle period of four of the first six games.
On Saturday, the Caps put up a crooked number of their own in the middle period, doing so for the third time in five games. Washington has outscored the opposition by a combined 8-1 in the second period of its last five contests.
“It was an issue for us early [in the season],” says Carbery. “And still when we go back through it, I’ll bet there’s going to be a lot of issues for us in the neutral zone – some changes stuff which causes us problems – but we have talked a lot about it a lot, and we’ve worked on it. I think that’s where you see the results.”
In the third, Columbus crept a goal closer to the Caps when Ivan Provorov scored on a goalmouth scramble at 7:01 to make it a 3-2 game. The Caps called their timeout to buy some time, and then they issued an ultimately unsuccessful coach’s challenge that put the Jackets on the power play with a chance to tie the game. Washington’s penalty killing outfit was up to the task, as it has been for the last 10 games (23-for-23).
In explaining the Caps’ thinking on issuing the challenge, Carbery compared it to a successful challenge that went against Washington in an Oct. 24 game here against Toronto, a game in which the Caps had a goal taken off the board because Ovechkin was said to have interfered with Leafs’ goalie Joseph Woll’s ability to make the stop. But the long arm of the law in the NHL’s Toronto war room didn’t see it that way.
In the back half of the third, Lapierre scored on a breakaway, netting his second NHL goal and his first since his NHL debut here against the Rangers on Oct. 13, 2021. The play started from good defense; Protas intercepted a pass in the slot in Washington’s end, then pushed the puck to Milano near the Washington line. From there, Milano sent Lapierre into Columbus ice with a step, and the rookie pivot restored the Caps’ two goal lead at 13:34 with a backhander to the shelf.
“When I got the puck, I thought I had a clear-cut breakaway,” recounts Lapierre. “So I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’ve got time.’ And then I saw the guy, and I was like, ‘Oh, I better get a shot off.’ I’ve been working on my backhand, just trying to get comfortable, so it was kind of a ‘hope’ shot more than anything. It ended up going through, so I was super happy.”
So was the Capital One Arena crowd, but the Jackets weren’t finished. Justin Danforth converted a Sean Kuraly feed to make it a 4-3 game with 4:12 remaining.
When van Riemsdyk was whistled for an iffy penalty call at 17:26 of the third, the Caps were suddenly in some penalty killing soup, and the Jackets had a golden opportunity with which to get the game even, in an effort to shake off what is now an eight-game winless streak (0-6-2).
Charlie Lindgren – who earned his fourth straight win with a 33-save night – made a stellar stop on Boone Jenner’s tip-in try with just under a minute remaining, and John Carlson (two), Nic Dowd and Beck Malenstyn laid out to block shots, ensuring that the Caps would skate off with their fourth straight victory, their longest winning streak of the season.
“I’m really proud of Lappy, too,” says Lindgren. “He comes in – and I don’t know how long it’s been since he’s played – and his line was amazing. He’s a kid that works his butt off every single day and he’s always happy. I’m super pumped for him. What a game for him, Pro and Sonny Milano. Just a great effort all around.”
