Lindgren stops 35, Capitals blank Golden Knights for 3rd win in row

WASHINGTON -- Charlie Lindgren made 35 saves for the Washington Capitals in a 3-0 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.

It was Lindgren’s third shutout in the NHL, and his first since Feb. 26, 2018, when he made 33 saves for the Montreal Canadiens in a 1-0 shootout loss against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Tonight, just right from the puck drop I felt in the zone,” Lindgren said. “I think I’ve got some really good momentum going right now, feeling good in practice, feeling good in games. I thought our guys again tonight did a lot of selling out blocking shots, coming up big in big moments.”

Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael and Beck Malenstyn scored for the Capitals (8-4-2), who have won three straight and are 7-1-1 in their past nine games.

“At the beginning of the year, a few of the games where we outplayed teams we just couldn’t score,” Strome said. “We ended up finding a way to lose those games. Now it’s a little bit of the opposite; we're getting maybe outshot and outchanced a little bit, but our defensive structure’s pretty good and we kind of find ways to win.”

Logan Thompson made 28 saves for the Golden Knights (12-3-1), who have lost three of four, scoring a total of three goals in the losses.

“When we’ve lost, it’s usually because we don’t score enough, so that’s something we’ll look at,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “When can we win a 2-1 game when we’re not scoring? And tonight was one of those nights it could have been, because to me essentially it was a 1-0 game. That’s one [where] it would be nice to get an equalizer and then have a chance to win a 2-1 game.”

The Golden Knights had two breakaways late in the first period, but Lindgren made saves against Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson about one minute apart.

“We're getting the looks, for sure, we just got to score the goals,” Vegas captain Mark Stone said. “It's pretty simple. I liked a lot of our 5-on-5 game tonight. We generated a ton of chances. Just got to find ways to bear down and score the goals.”

Strome gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 16:39 when he entered the offensive zone 2-on-1 with Matthew Phillips, kept the puck and beat Thompson far side top corner from the left circle.

“I was looking for ‘Philly’ kind of the whole way,” Strome said. “Had a really similar play a few games ago when I tried to pass to [Alex Ovechkin] and got picked off. I felt like the [defenseman] was kind of sitting back a little bit and the goalie was pretty deep in the net, so I saw the right side and put it home.”

Golden Knights forward Paul Cotter received a match penalty at 5:18 of the second period for an illegal check to the head of Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov.

During the power play, Lindgren stopped Karlsson on a short-handed breakaway attempt.

“Just fantastic all night,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said of Lindgren. “Go down the list of the breakaways, all the different saves in tight, some rebounds. He had it all. … All sorts of different stops, the difference in the game.”

McMichael made it 2-0 at 19:11 with an empty-net goal before Malenstyn scored on the breakaway at 19:27 for the 3-0 final.

NOTES: Washington defenseman John Carlson played his 941st game for the Capitals, passing Kelly Miller for fifth in franchise history. … Washington was 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and has killed off 20 straight over its past nine games. … Stone played 21:17 and was minus-2 in his 600th NHL game. … The Golden Knights won 38 of 55 face-offs (69 percent).