Thompson makes 39 saves for 100th NHL win, Capitals shut out Blue Jackets

WASHINGTON -- Logan Thompson made 39 saves to earn his 100th NHL win in the Washington Capitals’ 2-0 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena on Sunday.

It was Thompson’s first shutout of the season and seventh in the NHL. He is 5-0-1 over his past six starts.

“Credit to the guys in front of me tonight,” Thompson said. “They were really laying it on the line, and we really wanted these two points and just happy to get it done.”

Jakob Chychrun and Aliaksei Protas scored for the Capitals (18-9-3), who are on a season-long eight-game point streak (7-0-1) and are 10-1-1 in their past 12 games.

“Logan Thompson, that’s been for sure the biggest part of today,” Protas said. “I think we gave up more chances than we wanted to, but overall, I think we did a great job finding a way. Sometimes it’s not pretty but we found it and like I said, ‘LT’.”

Jet Greaves made 36 saves for the Blue Jackets (13-10-6), who were coming off a 7-6 overtime loss at the Florida Panthers on Saturday and had their five-game point streak (2-0-3) end.

“I thought we had plenty of opportunities to score, obviously, and their goaltender’s played extremely well against us every night, but certainly did tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “We had some quality, quality opportunities. He made some saves when he was on his backside. But we certainly liked our compete.”

Thompson is 3-0-0 against Columbus this season and has saved 95 of 97 shots.

Chychrun gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead 50 seconds into the second period, tapping a pass from Anthony Beauvillier to Tom Wilson and scoring on a snap shot from the top of the left circle off a return pass from Wilson.

“It was a little out of my reach,” Chychrun said of the Beauvillier pass. “I was just trying to touch it to not let their guy get it and it went right to Tom. My momentum kind of brought me to a place where I was able to open up from a good area and Tom put it right in my wheelhouse obviously, so great play.”

Chychrun leads NHL defenseman with 11 goals.

Thompson made a series of saves and the Capitals blocked four shots to kill off a double-minor penalty against Hendrix Lapierre midway through the third period.

“I thought it was very emblematic of the way we’ve played over this stretch,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Just finding a way, laying our bodies on the line. Some huge blocks, some huge clears for those four minutes to essentially preserve the game.”

Protas scored into an empty net at 18:34 of the third period for the 2-0 final.

Columbus outshot Washington 16-10 in the third period.

“We had our chances,” Columbus defenseman Damon Severson said. “Plenty of goals yesterday, obviously It’s unfortunate we didn’t get the win last night, but tonight we had another chance. We had some good opportunities. We just couldn’t get one past [Thompson].”

NOTES: Thompson (100-44-19 in 167 games) became the 17th goalie in NHL history to reach the 100-win mark in 170 games or fewer. … Protas has a six-game point streak (four goals, two assists). … Greaves had earned points in nine-straight games since Nov. 10 (4-0-5).