The Washington Capitals will go for a sweep of their three-game road trip when they visit the Utah Hockey Club on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
After squandering a two-goal lead in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, Washington went west and defeated the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights.
Utah, meanwhile, fell to 1-1-0 in the first two games of its three-game homestand after a 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights on Friday.
On Sunday, superstar captain Alex Ovechkin recorded his 31st career hat trick in the Capitals’ 5-2 win versus Vegas. Jakob Chychrun and Jakub Vrana each scored a goal for the Capitals and Logan Thompson made 40 saves, including 25 in the third period, against his former team.
“Just happy for him and proud of him to beat his former team and to play the way he did here tonight and grind through that and battle and arguably be the difference in the second half of that game,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said of Thompson.
After struggling on offense most of last season, the Capitals have scored four or more goals in 10 of their 17 games thus far in 2024-25. They have 72 goals on the season, and one reason has been Washington’s success in transition.
“I think that’s one of the areas of our game that’s really grown this year,” Carbery said. “We’re a very dangerous team off the rush. I feel like we’re picking our spots of when we can generate an entry and find the second wave, the Chychrun goal.”
A three-time Hart Trophy recipient, Ovechkin is tied for the NHL lead with 13 goals and enters Monday just 29 of surpassing Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894.
Ovechkin’s linemate Dylan Strome set up two goals to record his seventh multi-assist game of the season. He has 21 assists and is on pace to surpass his career-high total for a season (42, in 2022-23).
Utah seized a 2-0 lead versus Vegas before the bottom fell out on Friday. The Golden Knights scored a power-play goal in the second period and converted again with the man advantage during their three-goal third.
“It’s frustrating when you had a great start to the game, (then a) couple mistakes in the second,” Utah’s Clayton Keller said. “This one hurts. We were right there. Everyone was feeling good and we just made a couple mistakes and it cost us.”
The Golden Knights tied it midway through the third period and claimed a 3-2 lead with 1:18 remaining before adding an empty-net goal.
Logan Cooley and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev each scored a goal and Karel Vejmelka made 25 saves for Utah.
Utah finished with a season-high 34 shots on goal.
“We could not get the big goal,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “The killer goal would have probably changed everything. But we could not separate ourselves.”
Sergachev has scored a goal in each of his past four games at Delta Center. His 12 points (four goals, eight assists) are tied for third on the team.
Utah is 4-3-1 when playing at home and 4-2-0 overall against Eastern Conference opponents this season.
–Field Level Media
