The Washington Capitals put together a solid game Monday night in defeating the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 4-2.
Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play in the middle frame to give the Caps some breathing space.
Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play to tie Marcel Dionne for 8th in NHL – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“We needed that win and we knew they have a pretty good team,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, I think tonight the [fourth] line set the tone.”
TJ Oshie, Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly also scored for the Capitals who improved to 6-4-3.
“You’re always looking for consistency and at times here we’ve found it for stretches, for good stretches, and right now we’re not really finding that consistency.” Oshie said. “So, we’ll look to do that in our game and it starts with the start Wednesday night.”
Pheonix Copley made 31 savesto pick up the win.
“I think it was a team effort,” said Copley, who made his first home start. “Everybody kind of buckled down. We talked about game management. I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers.
“I think we gave it away in the first 10 minutes,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “When you’re playing that quality of team, you don’t want to be chasing the game, especially that early.”
Edmonton dropped to 8-5-1 with the loss.
“They have some game-breakers. They have some very skilled forwards. They’ve got a couple D-men that have great vision that can get pucks through. They have confidence on their power play. And they have the Stanley Cup. That means they’re pretty [darn] good,” McLellan added.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Capitals highlights]
Cam Talbot made 19 saves in taking the loss.
“Tonight, their forecheck kind of jumped all over us,” Talbot said. “They got two quick goals on a couple turnovers. That’s just kind of the way that team can go.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.