Sens Smother Caps, 5-2

Washington played the game it wanted to play in the first period of Thursday's game against the Sens in Ottawa, scoring a couple of power-play goals and generating plenty of chances at 5-on-5 as well. But the Caps ran into some penalty woes of their own in the second, losing momentum, their 5-on-5 mojo, and eventually, the game by a 5-2 count.

Drake Batherson scored a pair of power-play goals less than two minutes apart in the second period to knot the game at 2-2, and the Caps were never able to recover. They were outshot by a whopping 37-12 in the game's final 40 minutes, and they were outgunned 22-7 in the third.
Shane Pinto scored what would prove to be the game-winner at 5:53 of the third, and even though Caps goalie Darcy Kuemper was superb, his teammates weren't able to mount enough of an attack to truly threaten Sens goalie Anton Forsberg in the final two periods of play.
"We shot ourselves in the foot too many times with the puck," laments Caps coach Peter Laviolettte. "In the first period, we did exactly what we wanted to do. We put the puck north, we put it behind them, we're in the offensive zone, we're putting pucks to the net. In the second period and the third period, we played east-west hockey and didn't deliver any pucks. It's not good enough."
The Caps turned in an excellent first period, but they had some help from the Sens in the middle of the first frame. With Jake Sanderson already in the penalty box for tripping T.J. Oshie, Sanderson's defense partner Travis Hamonic sailed the puck over the window to give Washington a 5-on-3 power play of 72 seconds in duration.
As time on the Sanderson minor wound down below 15 seconds, the Caps broke the puck out of their own end, with Marcus Johansson taking a feed from John Carlson and carrying into Ottawa ice down the right side. Johansson lugged the puck behind the Ottawa net before shoveling a perfect backhand feed to the front for Oshie, who put a shot to the far corner of the cage for a 1-0 Caps lead at 10:01 of the first, five seconds before Sanderson's scheduled release.
Washington still had 53 seconds worth of power play time with which to work, and the Caps quickly double dipped on the 5-on-3, this time with the second power play unit lighting the lamp. From below the goal line, Conor Sheary fed Dmitry Orlov at center point. Orlov crept in a few feet before dishing to Anthony Mantha, whose one-timer from the right circle beat Forsberg to make it a 2-0 game at 10:35.
The Caps put plenty of offensive zone and forechecking heat on the Sens over the remainder of the first, and they were also adept at defending in their own end, limiting the Senators to a single shot on net over a span of just over 12 minutes of play in the opening period.
But that was as good as it would get for Washington on this night.
In the second, the penalty pendulum - and with it, the game's momentum - swung in the Senators' favor. Washington was whistled for five minor penalties in the second period, though the first of those was part of a set of matching minors. Ottawa went to a 4-on-3 power play soon after, and the Sens pulled to within one when Drake Batherson scored on a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle at 5:49 of the second.
Less than two minutes later, the Sens evened the score with another Batherson goal on the power play, this one a put back of a Thomas Chabot shot at 7:39.
Oshie was the guy in the box for both of those Batherson goals, and he took responsibility afterwards.
"Definitely the two penalties on me hurt us," says Oshie. "And then we just couldn't get back on our feet."
The Caps weren't able to generate much in the way of offense in the second period, and they were held without a shot on net for more than 10 minutes of the middle stanza.
Ottawa started the third with a carryover power play, and though the Caps were able to kill it off, the Sens grabbed their first lead of the night at 5:53 when Pinto scored the game's first even-strength goal from the slot after taking a nice feed from Tyler Motte from behind the Washington net.
Kuemper stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced in the third period to keep the Caps within striking distance, but as Laviolette noted, they played east-west hockey and were frequently denied entry at the Ottawa line in the third. Washington had two shots on net in the third before Pinto's goal, but both were from neutral ice, more than 80 feet from the Ottawa net.
Seconds after the Pinto goal, Forsberg made arguably his best and most important save of the game, sprawling to deny Johansson's bid for the tying tally from the right circle. From that point on, it was all Ottawa. The Sens pumped a fusillade of shots on Kuemper, peppering him with seven shots in less than three minutes in the middle of the final frame.
Ottawa fired each of the game's next 14 shots after Johansson's try was stopped, holding the Caps without a shot on net for the next 12 minutes and 11 seconds, until Carlson's 81-footer was gloved by Forsberg with 1:15 left, just after Kuemper was able to get off the ice for a sixth attacker.
Motte and Alex DeBrincat each hit the vacant Washington net in the waning seconds to account for the 5-2 final.
"They come out better than in the first period, and better than us," says Johansson of the Caps' final 40 minutes. "They took advantage of their power plays, and we took a few too many penalties. The momentum shifted real quick, and that cost us the game."