Jan. 24 vs. Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place
Time: 10:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (25-21-6)
Edmonton Oilers (25-19-8)
It’s been nearly a week since the Caps departed the District on their season long six-game road trip, and on Saturday night in Edmonton, they’ll move into the back half of the journey. A night after picking up their first victory of the tour in a 3-1 win over the Flames in Calgary, the Caps conclude a set of back-to-back games against the Oilers. Saturday’s game is the only one the Caps will play on an even-numbered day this month.
After taking two points in Calgary, the Caps will again be seeking to stack together consecutive victories, something they haven’t done since Dec. 2-3, 2025, when they won back-to-back games on the road in Los Angeles and San Jose, respectively.
Earlier this week, both New Jersey and then Pittsburgh, respectively, swept sets of back-to-back games by beating the Flames first and the Oilers a night later. The Caps are jockeying for playoff position with both the Devils and the Penguins, so a Saturday night victory would also enable them to keep pace with a pair of Metropolitan Division denizens.
There were heroes aplenty in Washington’s Friday night win over the Flames, a triumph that halted a four-game losing streak (0-4-0), the Caps’ first string of four straight regulation losses in nearly three years, since March 30-April 8, 2023.
Hendrix Lapierre scored Washington’s first goal of the game early in the second period, squaring the score at 1-1 after Morgan Frost started Calgary off with a power-play goal in the first frame. The goal was Lapierre’s first in 91 games, and it came in the same building as his previous goal, Scotiabank Saddledome, on March 18, 2024.
Lapierre’s teammates mobbed him on the ice, the coaches offered emphatic pats on the back once he was back to the bench, and his contingent of non-playing teammates erupted in the Calgary press box, as they had earlier in the first period when Lapierre had a couple of strong scoring chances.
“They just told me that, that that might have been a little extra celebration on that one, but yeah, the guys obviously on the ice too,” says Lapierre, “I felt it right away. Johnny [Carlson] kind of jumped into my arms, and it felt like I scored my first goal all over again. So I don't want that to happen too often.
“But no, it's an awesome group of guys. I love these guys to death. I've said it a lot, I consider myself very lucky to go to battle with these guys pretty much every other day. And it just shows the friendship of our group and how everyone's tight.”
The Caps’ strong second period already had a head of steam when Lapierre scored in the seventh minute but so buoyed by Lapierre’s goal were the Caps that they held the Flames without a shot on net for the first 16 minutes plus of the third period.
The Justin Sourdif line manufactured the winning goal, a dozen seconds after losing a draw in the offensive zone. Sourdif and Wilson combined to regain possession on the forecheck, and the duo set up Aliaksei Protas for the goal that snapped a 1-1 deadlock in the front half of the final frame.
Playing in his hometown, Logan Thompson made 25 saves to secure his 18th victory of the season. Thompson made 15 of those 16 stops in the first, when the Flames outshot the Caps 16-8.
And led by four each from Rasmus Sandin and Trevor van Riemsdyk, 11 different Caps combined to block 22 shots from Flames sticks in front of Thompson.
Friday’s game marked just the fourth in their last 18 in which the Caps were able to limit the opposition to two or fewer goals. They’ve played to a 6-10-2 mark across that span, yielding 64 goals against, a rate of 3.56 per game.
“I think we just decided at some point throughout that game we weren't going to be denied,” says Wilson. “And we started playing the right way, and you could see the confidence come back into our game, and we just looked like a team that belongs. And at this point in the season, we it's not like we're a team like, ‘Oh man, this is going to be an uphill battle.’ We know we have the group to do it; we’ve just got to go out there and play the right way, and we have confidence in this group.
“We're a heck of a hockey team, great roster, up and down the lineup, and we’ve just got to make sure we're playing better. And that's a start tonight. It's one win; it’s no big deal. We’ve got to keep it rolling.”
As they try to keep it rolling, they’re likely to encounter another angry opponent in Edmonton, which was unable to beat either New Jersey or Pittsburgh earlier in the week when both of those teams came into their building on the second night of a back-to-back set of games, and the Oilers have surrendered the top spot in the Pacific Division to the Vegas Golden Knights as a result.
Tonight, the Oilers are finishing up the front half of a marathon eight-game homestand. They blanked the Blues in the opener before falling to the Devils and Penguins, respectively. And Anaheim, Minnesota, San Jose and Toronto will follow the Capitals into town.
