In Washington, DC, the Capitals’ Jakub Vrana struck for his first career NHL hat trick in a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Sunday night.
“I’m not that surprised. He (Vrana) has it in him,” Lars Eller said. “I don’t expect him to score three every night, but he’s got that kind of talent that he can do that once in awhile. I think as he gets more and more experience, we’ll see that more consistently. He’s going to score a lot of goals in this league.”
Ilya Samsonov made 25 saves to get the win.
“I’m just trying to keep working hard and keep working on my shot,” Vrana said. “Focus on the right things. We’ve been playing great as a team.”
The Caps improved to 11-2-3.
“That’s definitely close to our identity in terms of wanting to pressure and use our speed,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. “I think we’ve got some good speed throughout our lineup now. It’s nice to have that sort of depth.”
Andrew Mangiapane and Elias Lindholm scored for the Flames.
“I thought we had good jump,” Calgary captain Mark Giordano said. “If anything, the plays that cost us tonight were because we were overaggressive a little bit trying to hold lines and making reads to stay in their zone. I think they got some looks out of that.”
Calgary dropped to 8-7-2 with the loss.
Eller also scored for the Caps.
“I think every line is contributing. We can get goals from defensemen too. Every time we’re on the ice we feel like there’s five guys that can score. A lot of guys are feeling good about themselves so it’s very positive for us,” Eller said.
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Capitals highlights]
Cam Talbot made 28 saves in the loss.
“I thought we were good,” Flames coach Bill Peters said. “I thought we started on time. I thought we had all four lines going there. I thought it was huge goal by [Lindholm] at the end of the first and we were in good shape right there.”
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