Capitals Fall To Blue Jackets, 4-1; Alex Ovechkin Scores 43rd Goal Of The Season


Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-1, Sunday night at Capital One Arena. The loss drops the Capitals’ record to 50-21-9 (109 points) on the season. The Capitals have now lost seven of their last 10 games. The Blue Jackets outscored the Capitals 11-1 in their weekend set.

LINEUP

Charlie Lindgren (19-13-3, 2.74 GAA, .896 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Capitals. Jet Greaves (4-2-2, 2.71 GAA, .920 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Blue Jackets. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome —Anthony Beauvillier
Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane – Lars Eller — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Taylor Raddysh

Rasmus Sandin — Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary — Dylan McIlrath

Charlie Lindgren
Hunter Shepard

Scratches: John Carlson, Alex Alexeyev, Ethen Frank.

Injured: Logan Thompson (upper-body), Aliaksei Protas (lower-body), Sonny Milano (upper-body), Nicklas Backstrom (hip), T.J. Oshie (back).

1ST PERIOD

The Capitals opened the scoring quickly with Alex Ovechkin’s forty-third goal of the season, just 1:10 into the contest. Dylan Strome (52) had the lone helper.

Ovechkin has scored a goal in 35 of the 63 games (55.6%) he has played in this season. Ovechkin’s goal is his first career goal against Jet Greaves, the 184th different goaltender he has scored on in his career. Greaves is the ninth new goaltender Ovechkin has scored on this season.

Strome, who leads Washington in assists and points, has tallied 10 points (3g, 7a) in his last eight games. Strome has assisted on 22 of Ovechkin’s 43 goals this season and 48 of Ovechkin’s 116 goals since joining the Capitals ahead of the 2022-23 season, the most of any teammate in that span.

The Jackets tied it up late in the first frame on a snipe by Zach Werenski (22) at 14:36. I. Provorov (25) and S. Monahan (35) had the helpers.

The score remained tied 1-1 at the first intermission. The Blue Jackets led in five-on-five shot attempts, 19-14, and expected goals for, 0.65 to 0.48

2ND PERIOD

The Blue Jackets took their first lead of the night early in the middle frame. Adam Fantilli (28) capitalized on a Capitals turnover to give Columbus a 2-1 lead.

And that was it for the middle frame. The Capitals led in five-on-five shot attempts, 22-14, and expected goals for, 1.23 to 0.39.

3RD PERIOD

The Blue Jackets extended their lead to 3-1 early in the final frame. Adam Fantilli (29) notched his second tally of the game at 1:57. K. Johnson (33) and J. van Riemsdyk (19) had the assists.

The Blue Jackets made it 4-1 on a turnover and breakaway by Dmitri Voronkov (22) at 15:48.

And that would be the final.

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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