In Washington, DC, Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves on Sunday, and shutout the Columbus Blue Jackets, 1-0.
“Good teams can find a way in a lot of different ways, and tonight was one of them,” Kuemper said. “As the season goes along, things get a little bit tighter, so it’s nice to be able to get the ones like tonight.”
It was Kuemper’s fourth shutout of the season.
The Caps improved to 23-14-6 with the win.
The game’s only goal came from the Caps’ Erik Gustafsson at 2:43 of the first period.
Columbus dropped to 12-25-2, the Blue Jackets were playing the back end of a two games in two nights stint.
“Back-to-back nights against two really good teams and putting that effort back-to-back nights, the battle level, the compete, and even the execution aspect, it felt like it was all clicking,” Columbus defenseman Andrew Peeke said. “It makes the game more fun, and that’s how we have to play the rest of the year in order to improve as a hockey team.”
Nicklas Backstrom returned to the lineup in his season debut.
“It meant the world,” Backstrom said. “Obviously, I missed this, and with not knowing what my future was going to hold, just coming back and playing was great.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 18 saves in the hard luck loss.
“He comes across and makes a split save to keep it at one. I think that settled him down and allowed us to get our feet under us,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “[Then] probably one of our best second periods of the year. We didn’t give them much in the second and it carried over into the third.”
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