In Washington, DC, the visiting Vancouver Canucks put together a strong defensive effort and downed the Capitals on Saturday afternoon, 2-1, after the skills competition.
Bo Horvat potted the only goal in the seventh round of the skills.
“It’s one of those positions you want to be in,” Horvat said. “You want to be there in the big moments. [Markstrom] was phenomenal in the shootout, and I wanted to be the one to win it for him. So, I was happy I got to go and happy it went in.”
Jacob Markstrom made 32 saves to get the win.
Jakub Vrana scored to give the Caps a 1-0 first period lead.
“I was in that soft area, and as the third guy high I just wanted to be sure that I’m first guy back,” Vrana said. “Then Lars won that battle [along the boards] and he gave me the puck.”
Elias Pettersson tied the game with a first period goal.
“One of our best [wins] maybe of the year,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “I thought this was a real gutty win by our team. It’s one thing to beat a team when you scored four of five goals, but to push this game the way both goalies were playing, it was a nice win.”
The Caps dropped to 16-4-5 with the loss.
“We were scoring at a rate that was kind of unheard of for a while there,” Capitals head coach Todd Reirden said of the Capitals, who scored at least four goals in 10 of 11 games from Oct. 16-Nov. 9. “This is probably a way of it balancing out and averaging it out. I’d like to get some [offense] for sure and up and down our lineup as well.”
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Capitals highlights]
Braden Holtby made 32 savers in the loss.
“Braden was outstanding I thought all game,” Reirden said. “Gives us a chance and right through the shootout gave us a chance. Tough to only get one point, but we’ll take it and move on.”
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