In Washington, DC, the Capitals hit for three goals in the first period on Monday and took the New York Islanders off their game in a 5-2 win.
“That is disappointing when you’re in a spot where you win a couple and you’re in,” Islanders forward Zach Parise said. “Now we need help, so hopefully we get it.”
Dylan Strome scored the first of his double on the night with 36 seconds of fresh ice used in the first period for a 1-0 lead.
Rasmus Sandin pushed the lead to 2-0.
“I was just trying to get the puck on net, to be honest,” Sandin said. “I saw a guy coming at me, so I was just trying to get it on net and luckily it went in.”
Craig Smith made 3-0 at 13:13 of the stanza.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” New York coach Lane Lambert said. “We knew what we had to do, and we didn’t get it done. We just have to move on and get it done on Wednesday.”
Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves in the Caps win.
“You saw a lot of character tonight,” Kuemper said. “It’s a tough spot we’re in right now. … None of us envisioned being here, but guys are going to play hard. We’ve got a lot of pride in this room, and I think you saw that tonight.”
Washington moved to 35-36-9.
“It was good to get a win,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “When you’re losing games, it’s deflating. It was good to get a good start, come out the right way, score goals right away — a couple of goals right off the bat. … I thought [Kuemper] was really good. They fired a lot of shots tonight.”
The Isles’ Hudson Fasching, and the Caps’ Tom Wilson exchanged goals in the third to make the score, 3-1.
Casey Cizikas scored to trim the deficit back to two at 4-2.
“Obviously, a horrible start,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “We put ourselves in a hole down three (goals). After that, next 40, 50 minutes, we had plenty of chances. Couldn’t get enough to go early enough.”
Strome added his double with 70 seconds left on the clock for the 5-2 final.
The Islanders fell one point back of the Florida Panthers who lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in extra time, 2-1, on Monday.
Ilya Sorokin made 20 saves in the loss.
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