The Washington Capitals scored four power play goals to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 Monday night.
“We gave one up off an entry, one off a face-off, a 5-on-3, and then later in the game when we were pressing to try and tie the game up we gave one up off a fast break,” head coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. “Not good enough. You’ve got to find a way to get those killed and it certainly was the determining factor as to why we didn’t win the game tonight.”
The Oilers have lost three in a row.
Late in the first, Dylan Strome stole the puck from Warren Foegele, went in down the left side and beat Stuart Skinner up high to make it 1-0 Capitals.
Strome struck again on the power play in the first minute of the second. With the teams playing four-on-four, Connor McDavid stormed down the middle and beat Charlie Lindrgren with a forehand. Evgeny Kuznetsov made it 3-1 with a goal on a two-man advantage. Zach Hyman took the puck away from Alex Ovechkin and set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to pull Edmonton back within one. Only 26 seconds later, Ovechkin ripped one home on the power play. The Caps were up 4-2 after two.
The Oilers clawed back within a goal three minutes into the third when Leon Draisaitl converted a pass from Hyman.
“It’s getting old battling back, you know,” Draisaitl said. “It’s exhausting. It’s tiring. We just give up too many goals. We give up goals on the kills, we give up two-on-ones, it’s just not good enough right now.”
The Capitals scored on the power play with 1:51 left. Ovechkin sent a pass through his legs to Kuznetsov, who fired in his second of the night. The Oilers stayed alive when Nugent-Hopkins scored with 1:06 left, but they couldn’t muster the tying goal.
It was McDavid’s 500th career game. He has 724 points.
The Oilers, 7-6, will continue their road trip Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 4 p.m., game at 5:30 p.m.).
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