Capitals Down Knights, 4-2; Jakub Vrana Scores In First Game Back With Capitals


Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals downed the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-2 Tuesday night at Capital One Arena in Washington. The victory improves the Capitals record to 1-1-0 for the season.

The Capitals struck first just six minutes into the opening period on a blast by Jakub Vrana, playing in his first game with the Capitals since April 11, 2021. Vegas answered late in the period with a power play goal from Victor Olofsson for a 1-1 tie at the first intermission.

The Capitals opened the middle frame with goals from Tom Wilson, Jakob Chychrun and Aliaksei Protas in a span of 3:07 to make it 4-1 in the early going, but Jack Eichel cut the Capitals lead to 4-2 before the midway point of the middle frame. The score remained unchanged into the second intermission.

The third period went scoreless, with the Capitals holding on for the 4-2 victory.

LINEUP

Logan Thompson (0-0-0, 0.00 GAA, .000 sv%) made his first start of the 2024-25 season for the Capitals against his former team. Adin Hill (2-0-0, 3.50 GAA, .870 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the visiting Golden Knights. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Aliaksei Protas – Dylan Strome – Alex Ovechkin
Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana – Hendrix Lapierre – Andrew Mangiapane
Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Taylor Raddysh

Jakob Chychrun – John Carlson
Martin Fehervary – Dylan McIlrath
Rasmus Sandin – Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

Scratches: Matt Roy (lower body injury), Alex Alexeyev, Sonny Milano

FIRST PERIOD

The Capitals opened the scoring with a blast by Jakub Vrana (1) at 6:02 of the first frame. Andrew Mangiapane (1) had the lone assist.

The Knights tied the game with a power play goal from Victor Olofsson (3) at 17:49 of the first period. T. Hertl (2) and M. Stone (5) had the helpers.

The period concluded with the game tied, 1-1. The Capitals led in 5-on-5 shot attempts 16-12. The Knights led expected goals for, .63 to .46.

2ND PERIOD

The Capitals were awarded a 5-on-3 power play for 17 seconds early in the middle frame but were unable to convert. Less than two minutes later in the period the Capitals would finally convert on their next power play opportunity, with Tom Wilson (2) denting the twine at 3:06. Dylan Strome (2) and Alex Ovechkin (2) had the assists.

The Capitals quickly extended their lead to 3-1 on Aliaksei Protas’ first goal of the season at 5:16 of the middle period. Alex Ovechkin (3) had the lone assist.

The Capitals extended their lead to 4-1 on Jakob Chychrun’s first goal with the Capitals just 57 seconds later. Nic Dowd (1) and John Carlson (2) had the assists.

The Knights answered with a tally from Jack Eichel (2) at 7:17 of the middle frame. M. Stone (6) and I. Barbashev (4) had the helpers.

The period concluded with the Capitals holding on to the, 4-2 lead. The Capitals led in shot attempts, 30-28 after two periods. The Capitals led in expected goals for, .76 to .75 after two periods.

3RD PERIOD

The third period would go scoreless.

SHAVINGS (via Capitals PR)

  • Jakub Vrana, playing in his first game with Washington since April 11, 2021, scores 6:02 into the first period to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead.
  • Andrew Mangiapane recorded the primary assist on Vrana’s game-opening goal, marking his first point as a Capital. Mangiapane recorded 40 points (14g, 26a) in 75 games with Calgary in 2023-24 and has reached the 40-point mark in each of the last three seasons.
  • Since 2016-17, only Alex Ovechkin (0.56 G/GP) and T.J. Oshie (0.34 G/GP) have a higher goals-per-game rate with Washington than Jakub Vrana (0.27 G/GP) (min. 200 GP).
  • Tom Wilson scores his second goal of the season on the power play to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. Last season, Wilson tied his career high in power-play goals with five.
  • Aliaksei Protas scores his first goal of the season to extend the lead to 3-1. Protas established single-season career highs in goals (6), assists (23), points (29) and games played (78) in 2023-24.
  • Jakob Chychrun scores his first goal as a Capital to make it 4-1 Washington. Last season with Ottawa, Chychrun led Senators defensemen in goals (14), points (41), power-play goals (7), power-play points (16) and shots (204).
  • Dylan Strome recorded the primary assist on the Capitals’ second goal. Strome has now tallied a point in five-straight games against Vegas dating back to Nov. 1, 2022 and has recorded 15 points (5g, 10a) in 18 career games against the Golden Knights.
  • With his first two two assists tonight, Alex Ovechkin becomes the sixth player in NHL history with 700-plus goals and 700 assists.
  • Alex Ovechkin collected 0-2—2 through the first two periods and reached the 700-assist milestone. He joined Nicklas Backstrom (762) as the second player in @Capitals history to record 700 helpers with the franchise.
  • Among active players with 700 or more assists, Alex Ovechkin’s 853 goals are the most and are 261 more than the next closest player (Sidney Crosby: 592g).
  • Ovechkin is just one of six players in NHL history to average at least 0.60 goals-per-game and 0.49 assists-per-game in their career.Wayne Gretzky (0.60 G/GP, 1.32 A/GP in 1,487 GP)
    Alex Ovechkin (0.60 G/GP, 0.49 A/GP in 1,427 GP)
    Mario Lemieux (0.75 G/GP, 1.13 A/GP in 915 GP)
    Mike Bossy (0.76 G/GP, 0.74 A/GP in 752 GP)
    Pavel Bure (0.62 G/GP, 0.49 A/GP in 702 GP)
    Auston Matthews (0.65 G/GP, 0.50 A/GP in 565 GP)
  • Nic Dowd recorded the primary assist on Washington’s fourth goal, his first point of the 2024-25 season. Last season, 19 of Dowd’s 22 points came at five-on-five, which ranked tied for sixth among Capitals forwards.
  • John Carlson has been credited with the secondary assist on Washington’s fourth goal, his third point (1g, 2a) in two games this season. With the assist, Carlson tied Kevin Hatcher (677) for the ninth-most points by an American-born defenseman in NHL history.

About Jon Sorensen

Jon has been a Caps fan since day one, attending his first game at the Capital Centre in 1974. His interest in the Caps has grown over the decades and included time as a season ticket holder. He has been a journalist covering the team for 10+ years, primarily focusing on analysis, analytics and prospect development.





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