Capitals vs. Blues Recap: Caps Keep Offense Clicking in 7 to 3 Win

Coming off the most exciting regular season game in recent memory the Capitals travelled to St. Louis to get back to their winning ways. Behind a 22 save performance by Braden Holtby and a second period offensive surge Washington bested the Blues 7 to 3.

First up, Thursday night’s Plus/Minus.

• Plus: Andre Burakovsky has goals in three straight games and, after a slow start to his season, now has eight markers on the year.
• Minus: Washington was worked in the faceoff dot by the Blues, with St. Louis winning 57% of game’s draws.

Ten more notes on the game:

• Burakovsky got the scoring started before the first period was six minutes old. He took a snapshot that beat Jake Allen on his shortside, with the puck squeezing between Allen’s arm and body.
• And two minutes later Jay Beagle fired a shot from the slot that beat Allen low again. A strong forecheck from Tom Wilson allowed Winnik to find Beagle backpedaling in the slot for the tally.
• Allen was pulled after Beagle’s goal, the young goaltender yielded two goals against on three shots faced - his night ended after seven minutes of play. Carter Hutton would come on in relief but Allen would return later in the first period.
• Twenty seconds into the second period Jaden Schwartz got the Blues on the board with a seeing-eye shot from the right wall. A quick exchange with Paul Stastny allowed Schwartz to put the puck through several bodies before tucking it under the crossbar for the goal.
• But the Capitals would regain their two goal lead thanks to T.J. Oshie’s deft deke and a strong backhanded shot. A quick series of passes between Alex Oveckhin and Nicklas Backstrom set the stage for Oshie’s finish from the bottom of the slot that had Allen swimming.
• Less than four minutes later Brett Connolly beat two Blues defenders to enter the offensive zone alone and fire a shot over Allen’s glove, ending the goaltender’s night for good. Connolly now has goals in back to back contests.
• And eleven seconds later Marcus Johansson capitalized on a Vladimir Tarasenko turnover to score Washington’s fifth of the night. Tarasenko mishandled the puck below the blue line and Johansson stepped right to it, allowing him to place a perfect shot that beat Hutton blocker side.
• Late in the second period Washington would get their sixth with the man advantage. Evgeny Kuznetsov dished the puck to Justin Williams in the slot and Williams one-touched it home.
• Kuznetsov would add Washington’s final goal midway through the third period. His shot deflected off of Alexander Steen’s stick up and over Hutton’s glovehand to extend Washington’s lead.
• Steen, however, would redeem himself with two goals of his own in the second half of the final frame.

Game Highlights: