Washington Capitals Pound Florida Panthers, 4-1, Send Defending Champions To Fourth Straight Loss; Jakob Chychrun Scores Sixth Of Season


Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals beat the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers by a score of 4-1 on Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena to start their annual two-game Father’s and Mentor’s Trip.

Washington’s losing-streak ended at two games and the team improved to 14-6-1 (.690 points percentage) this season. Florida lost their fourth straight game and fifth time in their last six. Goaltender Logan Thompson made 21 saves in the victory, Washington’s first in Sunrise during the regular season since November 7, 2019.

Washington lifts four points ahead of the New York Rangers (who have a game in hand) for third place in the Metropolitan Division and two behind the Carolina Hurricanes (with both teams having played 21 games this season) for second. They are currently three within the New Jersey Devils (three) for first.

Washington’s Lines

Aliaksei Protas – Dylan Strome – Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Taylor Raddysh
Hendrix Lapierre – Lars Eller – Andrew Mangiapane
Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Ivan Miroshnichenko

Jakob Chychrun – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Matt Roy
Martin Fehervary – Trevor Van Riemsdyk

Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

  • Scratched
    • LW Jakub Vrana
    • D Dylan McIlrath
    • D Alexander Alexeyev
  • Injured
    • LW Alex Ovechkin (fractured fibula)
    • LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
    • C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
    • RW T.J. Oshie (back)

Florida’s Lines

Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Mackie Samoskevich
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jesper Boqvist

Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis

Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky

  • Scratched
  • Injured
    • LW Jonah Gadjovich (upper-body)

First Period

Scoring

  • 7:00, 1-0 Florida: Mikkola sniped a wrist shot over the blocker of Thompson from the low left dot after Bennett rushed the puck down the middle of the ice and backhanded a feed to him on his left wing.
  • 17:49, 1-1: Eller snuck behind the defense and backhanded a shot under the blocker of Knight from down low after Chychrun fed him with all alone from the point. It was Eller’s first goal six games into his second stint in Washington, who acquired him from the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 12.

Stats

  • 9-4 Washington in shots
  • .583 Florida in faceoffs
  • Florida did not score on the only power play
  • 11-9 Washington in hits
  • 8-5 Florida in blocked shots
  • 6-6 in giveaways
  • 3-1 Florida in takeaways
Screenshots: Natural StatTrick

Second Period

Scoring

Stats

  • 17-15 Washington in shots
  • Washington failed to score on two power plays
  • 22-15 Florida in hits
  • 12-11 Florida in blocked shots
  • 14-12 Florida in giveaways
  • 4-3 Florida in takeaways

Third Period

Scoring

  • 1:18, 2-1 Washington (PPG): Chychrun let a wrister fly above the glove of Knight and top right corner from the top with Dubois screening Knight after Strome fed him from the right half-wall.
  • 18:32, 3-1 (ENG): Eller retrieved the puck in the defensive dot and took the puck past two Panthers defenders and to the goal.
  • 19:37, 4-1 (ENG): Miroshnichenko slammed home an empty netter after beating Ekblad to the loose puck after Washington dumped the puck to the defensive end.

Reinhart’s career-best 13-game point-streak ended.

Stats

  • 31-21 Washington in shots
  • .579 Washington on draws
  • Washington scored once on their four power plays
    • Florida did not on any of their four
  • 30-23 Florida in hits
  • 17-15 Florida in blocked shots
  • 17-16 Florida in giveaways
  • 5-5 in takeaways

Next game: Wednesday at Tampa Bay Lightning (7:30 PM ET, TNT)

By Harrison Brown

About Harrison Brown

Harrison is a diehard Caps fan and a hockey fanatic with a passion for sports writing. He attended his first game at age 8 and has been a season ticket holder since the 2010-2011 season. His fondest Caps memory was watching the Capitals hoist the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas. In his spare time, he enjoys travel, photography, and hanging out with his two dogs. Follow Harrison on Twitter @HarrisonB927077





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