The Washington Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators in Ottawa for the second time in exactly one week. Much like a week ago, the starring performance in Saturday night’s 3-2 victory came from rookie goaltender Pheonix Copley.
The Senators out-shot the Caps 33 to 24 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 60 to 49.
- Lets get this out of the way because I promised it in the recap. John Carlson (minus-8) and Michal Kempny (minus-6) got blasted by opponent scoring chances at even strength, but they didn’t actually end up the worst on the squad. That honor belongs to Madison Bowey who did not take his second pairing promotion very well. Bowey posted a minus-12 shot attempt differential, minus-11 scoring chance differential, and a minus-6 high danger chance differential. All of those, worst on the team.
- The defenseman that has impressed me the most (not named Christian Djoos) out of the youngsters populating this year’s blueline is Jonas Siegenthaler. With the worst offensive zone start percentage on the team (16.7-percent), Siegenthaler still found a way to come up with positive differentials in both five-on-five shot attempts (plus-4) and scoring chances (plus-2). The Caps have a couple very young, large in stature, smooth skating blueliners in their pipeline and Jonas is one of them. 2018 first round pick Alexander Alexeyev is another. This is good.
- Siegenthaler’s partner on the evening was Tyler Lewington and he had quite the night as well. Lewington had a very similar game to Siegenthaler in terms of the stats mentioned above, but he also recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist, fight) in only his second NHL game. His first career point came via the secondary assist on Tom Wilson‘s goal. His first career goal was primarily assisted by Nicklas Backstrom minutes later. And finally, his first career fight occurred against Ottawa’s Zack Smith to complete the hat trick.
Lewington with the Gordie Howe hat trick, first #Caps defenseman to achieve the feat in nearly 28 years. He dropped the mitts with Zack Smith. #CapsSens
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) December 30, 2018
- I talked about Bowey’s game earlier, but did not mention that he also tallied his first career NHL goal. This wild night of milestones became the first time in Capitals franchise history and only the 19th time in NHL history that two defensemen from the same team scored their first NHL goals in the same game.
- The Caps have now won four games in a row, nine of their last ten, and their last five road games.
- Star of the night was easily Pheonix Copley. He stopped 31 of the Sens 33 shots and now sports a .946 save percentage in the month of December.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Senators
Headline photo: Andre Ringuette
