Zach Hyman had a natural hat trick and Edmonton scored three power-play goals to hand the Capitals a second straight setback to start their five-game western trip. After falling in Winnipeg on Monday, the Caps were on the wrong end of a 7-2 beating at the hands of the Oilers on Wednesday night at Edmonton’s Rogers Place.
Hyman’s hat trick was his fourth of the season; he is the first Edmonton player to achieve that feat since Wayne Gretzky had four in 1986-87. Oilers’ goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped each of the last 23 shots he faced on Wednesday to earn his 30th win of the season.
The Caps were able to halt an early Edmonton uprising and get back into the game, which was a one-goal affair for more than 22 minutes of playing time, but the Oilers surged once again in the back half of the second to win going away; they put a crooked number on the scoreboard in each of the game’s three periods.
Edmonton’s victory gave the Oilers a sweep of the season’s series; they won a 5-0 decision in Washington on Nov. 24.
“It was a tough night,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s not a great matchup for our team in general, with their speed and skill. Even in our building and then back here, it’s an issue for us. They’re just fast, and when we play teams like that, it just gets exploited. Coming into this building and playing against that team, there’s a lot of talent on that roster. So it’s a handful for our young guys.”
Edmonton took control of the contest early in what was an extremely high event first period. The first dozen minutes of the game featured the equivalent of four power plays – one of the infractions was a double-minor – and five goals, three of them on the power play.
Back in the lineup for the first time since Feb. 20 after recuperating from an upper body injury, Caps’ center Nic Dowd was assessed a double-minor for hi-sticking on his first shift of the game. Washington did excellent work in snuffing out the first three minutes of the penalty, limiting Edmonton to a single shot. But then the Oilers began to pepper Caps’ goaltender Darcy Kuemper with shots.
Kuemper made an excellent left pad save on Leon Draisaitl, but the Oilers kept teeing him up. Another shot hit the crossbar, and the third time was the charm; Draisaitl fired it home from the right circle to put the Oilers up 1-0 at 4:36 of the first.
Draisaitl would add three assists to finish with a four-point game.
Dylan Strome was then boxed for hi-sticking, and Strome’s former junior teammate Connor McDavid made the Caps pay on the ensuing power play, giving Edmonton an early 2-0 advantage at 6:58.
At that point, Edmonton also owned a 9-0 advantage in shots on net. But 92 seconds later, Ivan Miroshnichenko answered back on Washington’s first shot on net of the night. From the lower part of the right circle, Miroshnichenko wound up and hammered a loose and bouncing puck straight to the back of the net to halve the home team’s advantage at 8:30 of the first.
Soon afterwards, Washington went on the power play and pulled even on a Connor McMichael goal at 10:55. Alex Ovechkin’s one-timer from his left dot office was blocked, but the puck bounced right to McMichael, who quickly buried it. Down 9-2 in shots on net, the Caps had managed to square the score just after the midpoint of the first.
Alas, the good times were short-lived. Less than half a minute later, Edmonton regained the lead for good when Hyman buried a rebound of his own shot from the top of the paint at 11:24.
Skinner made perhaps his best stop of the night on Ovechkin late in a the first, moving from left to right to deny the Caps’ captain’s bid for a tying tally. Skinner thwarted a couple more excellent opportunities from Ovechkin later in the game.
The rest of the first and much of the second was uneventful, except for Kuemper making stellar stops from in tight on both Hyman and Corey Perry in the second period. But late in the period, coming out of the third and final television timeout of the period, Edmonton added an insurance strike just six seconds after a center ice face-off.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked off a Martin Fehervary pass at the Washington line, then quickly fed Hyman on the ensuing 2-on-1, and the latter netted his second of the night at 14:13.
A late Edmonton power play produced then Oilers’ third extra-man tally of the game, an Evan Bouchard right point blast that made it 5-2 at 19:08 of the second. Hyman deflected that Bouchard shot to record his natural hat trick, but the goal was originally credited to Bouchard and wasn’t changed until late in the third period.
The Caps just weren’t able to find the game’s next goal during that lengthy stretch when it was still a one-goal game.
“We started the game obviously chasing from behind right away,” says Caps’ winger Tom Wilson. “They get early power plays, they capitalize, we kind of chase the whole night. It was close at times, and just unlucky bounces in a couple of situations, and they make us pay.
“Against a good team like that, you’ve got to just be better with the puck and manage situations better, because they can capitalize.”
Warren Foegele and Connor Brown scored on consecutive shifts in the middle of the third to account for the 7-2 final. Brown’s goal was his first in 55 games this season, snapping a drought of 72 games and nearly two calendar years; his previous goal was at Winnipeg on March 24, 2022, when he was still a member of the Ottawa Senators.
“I actually thought we did some pretty good things 5-on-5,” says Carbery. “The penalty kill is obviously an issue for us, and you’ve got to look at the opposition in that department. But I thought we were right there for a bit, and then there's a couple of mistakes. Marty's turnover in in the neutral zone – those little things against a team like this, and then you get behind the eight ball and now you're now you're really [in trouble]. When you get down a couple, then it becomes really challenging.”
