Photo: @Capitals
The Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders by a score of 3-1 at UBS Arena in their penultimate regular-season game on Tuesday to improve to 51-21-9 (.685 points percentage) this season. Washington, who went 3-6-1 in their previous 10 outings, has already clinched the top seeds in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference. New York was already eliminated from postseason contention entering the game. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 34 saves in the victory.
Washington’s Lines
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
Alexander Alexeyev — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary — Dylan McIlrath
Lindgren
Hunter Shepard
- Scratched
- RW Ethen Frank
- D Jakob Chychrun
- D John Carlson
- Injured
- G Logan Thompson (upper-body)
- LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- RW T.J. Oshie (back)
- C Aliaksei Protas (lower-body)
Alexeyev drew into the lineup while Chychrun rested.
New York’s Lines
Anders Lee — Bo Horvat — Kyle Palmieri
Maxim Tsyplakov – Jean-Gabriel Pageau — Simon Holmstrom
Pierre Engvall – Casey Cizikas — Hudson Fasching
Matt Martin — Kyle MacLean — Marc Gatcomb
Adam Pelech — Ryan Pulock
Scott Perunovich — Noah Dobson
Scott Mayfield — Tony DeAngelo
Ilya Sorokin
Marcus Hogberg
- Scratched
- LW Anthony Duclair
- D Adam Boqvist
- D Mike Reilly
- G Tristan Lennox
- Injured
- G Semyon Varlamov (lower-body)
- C Mathew Barzal (lower-body)
- D Alexander Romanov (illness)
First Period
Scoring
- 8:15, 1-0 Washington (PPG): Strome wristed a shot that went off of the leg of Pulock, who was camped out at the left post, and under the blocker of Sorokin from the top after getting a pass by Dubois from the right half-wall. Strome tied his career-high with his 27th goal of the season, which was set a year ago. 29 of Dubois’ 45 assists have been primaries, which leads Washington. The Capitals have scored at least one power-play goal in seven of their last nine games and have gone nine-for-21 with the man advantage (.429) since March 30. Strome (three goals) has factored on seven of the Capitals’ nine power-play goals in that stretch. Sandin (4-26-30 in 81 games) reached the 30-point mark for the second time in his career (also 2022-23: 7-28-35 in 71).
Tying a career-high in goals with a seeing-eye shot#ALLCAPS | @BlueHalo pic.twitter.com/8os8ju4Dwu
— z – Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 15, 2025
Stats
- 10-8 Washington in shots
- Washington scored once on their first two power plays
- New York failed to strike on their first opportunity
- 5-2 Washington in hits
- 5-3 New York in blocked shots
- 6-6 in giveaways
Graphs: Natural StatTrick
Second Period
Fehervary did not come out for the period due to an apparent foot/ankle injury sustained from blocking a shot but returned midway through.
Here’s what happened to Fehervary. Appeared to catch right skate and turn foot/ankle. pic.twitter.com/jNB1ifYsXv
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) April 16, 2025
Scoring
- 7:52, 2-0: Strome unleashed a slapper from the slot that went under the blocker of Sorokin after Ovechkin pushed Mayfield behind the net and ripped him off before throwing the puck to Strome. Strome established a new single-season career high with his 28th goal of the season in 81 games (2023-24: 27 in 82) and hit the 80-point mark for the first time of his nine-season NHL career. Ovechkin has tallied at least one point in each of his last eight games played (7-5-12). Strome became just the fifth Capital to record an 80-point season since 2009-10, joining Ovechkin (six times), Backstrom (two), Evgeny Kuznetsov (two) and Alexander Semin.
The Dylan Strome Show on the Island tonight pic.twitter.com/aQdJER6hEQ
— z – Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 16, 2025
Stats
- 23-20 Washington in shots
- including 13-12 in the second
- Washington went one-for-four on the power play in the first 40 minutes
- New York did not score on their first three man advantages
- 9-5 Washington in hits
- 12-12 in blocked shots
- 11-8 New York in giveaways
Third Period
Scoring
- 11:36, 2-1: Fasching caught the puck rimming around the boards, threw the puck into a box of players, drove to the cage, and swiped his stick to direct the puck off of the leg of Pageau and over the blocker of Lindgren.
Hudson Fasching gets a gift #Isles pic.twitter.com/S0FKed3jTv
— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) April 16, 2025
- 18:49, 3-1 (ENG) After Wilson threw the puck back along the left boards, Strome shot the puck into the empty net from center ice. It was Strome’s third career NHL hat trick.
Stats
- 36-35 Washington in shots
- 14-12 New York in the third period
- New York failed to score on four power plays
- 13-8 Washington in hits
- 19-17 Washington in blocked shots
- 14-12 New York in giveaways
Next game: Thursday at Pittsburgh Penguins (7 PM ET, ESPN)
By Harrison Brown
