In Uniondale, Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves for the Washington Capitals on Thursday, in a 1-0 win over the Islanders after penalties.
“When it’s going to be tight like this game turned out to be, you’re going to have to rely on him at some point, and he came up huge,” the Capitals’ John Carlson said. “They weren’t just good saves, they were great saves every time they did break through us. That was the difference.”
Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in the skills competition for the Caps to decide the outcome.
“They were playing aggressive,” New York’s Nick Leddy said. “They were moving their feet. I think we got set up a couple of times. We just didn’t happen to get a whole lot to the net. We had a couple of chances, especially ‘Palms’ there. He had a nice look and it almost went in.”
The Capitals improved to 30-13-4 with the win.
“These three games is a little more like a playoff series than it is regular season, so you know we will get to take a look at things versus them and they will try to do the same for us and make some adjustments to maybe find something that might loosen it up a little bit,” Washington head coach Peter Laviolette said.
The Isles have lost three of five and dropped to 29-13-5 with the decision on Thursday.
“If we could have got a lead, I think it would have given us a little spark hopefully for the second,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “This is a good team we’re playing and it’s going to come in waves. … That was a battle.”
Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves for his fifth shutout of the season.
“I’d rather win 2-1 or 6-5 than a loss like that, because it’s all about winning for me for this team,” Varlamov said. “It’s good for the stats when you don’t give up any goals, but after the game, you go back home and you lost the game.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.