The Washington Capitals have snapped their mini two game losing skid after beating the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale. The 4-2 late night victory featured goals from two young wingers stepping up in the absence of a few key injured teammates and a solid performance in net from a Caps rookie netminder.
The Caps and Coyotes both recorded 29 shots on goal, but the Caps barely edged out the five-on-five shot attempts battle 55 to 54.
- This is the first regulation win for the Capitals in Arizona since January 16, 2006. If that date looks familiar to you, it’s for good reason. “The goal” was scored that day by Alex Ovechkin and Brent Johnson was in the cage for the 6-1 victory.
- Those two young wingers that stepped up to score in this game were Jakub Vrana and Andre Burakovsky. Vrana now has three goals in his last two games and nine on the season which ties him for third on the team in goal scoring with the injured TJ Oshie.
- Pheonix Copley returned to the cage against the Yotes for the first time since the late post Thanksgiving win over the Rangers on November 24. Copley stopped 27 of 29 shots fired his way Thursday night, recording his fifth victory on the season.
- The Caps got blistered in the first period by the young and fast Coyotes, but Copley got them through the worst of it and they went into the first intermission only down one goal. From there, the Caps really took over the game and didn’t let it slip until the final buzzer.
Alex Ovechkin has recorded his 5,000th career shot in his 1,031st career game. That sets the record for the fastest player in NHL to reach 5,000 shots, besting Marcel Dionne's previous record (1,215) by 184 games.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 7, 2018
- The third line of Lars Eller, Devante Smith-Pelly, and Chandler Stephenson had a fabulous night together at five-on-five. They didn’t get on the score sheet, but they were the only trio heavily in the black differential wise in shot attempts, scoring chances, and high danger chances. Well done.
- A very nice birthday for December birthday boy Matt Niskanen as he brought the Capitals level in the game at 2-2 with his fourth tally of the season. Nisky had a great night at even strength as he and his partner Dmitry Orlov were plus-two on the ice at five-on-five.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Coyotes
Headline photo: Norm Hall
