Capitals chase Holtby with five goals, Vanecek shuts out Stars

DALLAS-- The Washington Capitals scored five goals against Braden Holtby in two periods of a 5-0 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Friday.

Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves for the Capitals (24-12-9), who won in regulation for the first time since Jan. 15 (seven games).
Holtby made 22 saves in his first game against his former team before he was pulled. He played his first 10 NHL seasons for Washington and won the Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018.
"I hate to see he had a tough night, but we all know what he's done for our organization, for our club, for our fans," Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom said. "He's a good friend of a lot of guys on the team and I think everyone loves him."
Jake Oettinger made two saves in relief for the Stars (22-17-2), who had won four in a row.
"The score tells you we had nothing going tonight," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. "We played a very experienced, hungry hockey club that had lost two in a row. They came in and took control of the game and didn't let up. We just had nothing going tonight."

Joe Pavelski appeared to give Dallas the lead 42 seconds into the first period, but Washington successfully challenged for offside.
"It's not the start we wanted," Capitals forward Connor McMichael said. "It was kind of lucky that it was offside there for us. I felt like after that, it kind of woke us up and we started firing on all cylinders."
Tom Wilson made it 1-0 47 seconds later, scoring a power-play goal from his knee at the top of the circle.
John Carlson scored a power-play goal from the middle of the ice to make it 2-0 at 7:54. Trevor van Riemsdyk scored his first goal of the season off a point shot for a 3-0 lead at 13:08.
"I think we got exposed today," Stars defenseman John Klingberg said. "Mistakes got costly, and they're a really good hockey team over there."

Lars Eller caught Holtby puck watching and passed through the goalie's legs to McMichael for a tap-in to make it 4-0 at 12:03 of the second period.
"I think we didn't forecheck well tonight," Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. "And we probably didn't play that hard when we did it on the road."
The Capitals increased their lead to 5-0 when Nicklas Backstrom beat Holtby to the far side at 16:50.
"They're a skilled, fast team with a good forecheck as well," Backstrom said. "We talked about just moving the puck quick, that's something we've been struggling with lately, so just moving the puck quick and getting out of our zone as fast as possible. We did that good tonight."
Dallas, which had the third-best power-play percentage at home (26.1 percent), was 0-for-3.
"Their first power play, they generated a lot of zone time and a lot of puck possession," Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. "That was a little bit scary as well. I thought the penalty kill got better as the game went on too. Talented players over there, but I thought defensively we were good."
NOTES: Prior to the game, former Stars defenseman Sergei Zubov had his No. 56 retired. He played his final 12 NHL seasons (1996-2009) with Dallas and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 1999. The Hockey Hall of Famer is the Stars/Minnesota North Stars leader among defensemen in games played (839), goals (111), assists (438) and points (549). ... Holtby played last season for the Vancouver Canucks, who did not play the Capitals. He was 282-122-46 in 468 games with Washington, and is second in wins and games played behind Olaf Kolzig (301, 711) in Capitals history. His 35 shutouts are tied with Kolzig for most. ... Van Riemsdyk played his 40th game this season and had not scored since Jan. 30, 2021 (55 games). ... Washington has scored first in 30 games this season, most in the NHL.