With Ovechkin out, the Capitals needed a win to advance in the Metropolitan standings. Instead, they would lose 4-1 at home to the Islanders. "[Our] guys were out of sync a little bit, couldn't get much going," the Capital's Tom Wilson said in an interview. "Kind of an ugly game. Sometimes you've got to find a way to turn it around when it isn't going your way, but we just didn't really have that tonight." The Capitals will have a rematch with the Islanders tomorrow at 7:00 pm in New York.
1st Period: 1-1
Conor Sheary got the scoring started about ten minutes into the game with a redirection of Marcus Johansson's shot. Ryan Pulock returned fire for the Isles about 6 minutes later in the power play.
2nd Period: 1-1
This period went scoreless.
3rd Period: 4-1 (Final)
The tiebreaking goal came from the Islander's Noah Dobson just 3 minutes into the period on the powerplay. About 5 minutes later, Casey Cizikas got the puck from a scramble behind the net and put it behind a stumbling Samsonov, all while short-handed. Anders Lee scored a slap shot with less than 5 minutes left in the game. Final score: 4-1 Islanders.
Standings:
(Standings from NHL)
Author: Jackson Hammack.
Sources: RMNB, NHL. (Cover image from RMNB.)