Caps Blank Jackets, 4-0

First place in the Metropolitan Division was at stake on Saturday night in Columbus, and Capitals played like it. They took control early and rarely wavered en route to a thorough 4-0 win over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

Braden Holtby stopped all 28 shots he faced to record his second shutout of the season and the 34th of his career, and Washington got four goals from four different skaters at five-on-five, with three lines contributing to the attack.
"I think we had a pretty good plan going forward," says Holtby. "But in order for that to work, we have to execute it, and I thought we executed extremely well tonight. [The Jackets] pressure hard and they come hard, and if you're not on your game in your [defensive] zone, you're going to be hemmed in for a while. I thought our wingers especially did a great job along the walls tonight; they created a lot of odd-man rushes that way."

Washington jumped out to an early lead on one of those odd-man rushes and never looked back, adding to the lead twice before the first period was over, getting three goals at even strength from three different forward lines in the first 20 minutes to put the Columbus crowd on its hands.
Brett Connolly got the Caps started at 1:42, beating Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on a near post stuff-in off a two-on-one rush. Carrying up the right wing side with Jakub Vrana available as an option, Connolly elected to keep it, lugging it down to the goal line and tucking it in at the last instant.
An early power play opportunity produced nothing for the Capitals, but they doubled their lead on a forechecking goal just after the middle of the first period. Washington's fourth line put some heat on Columbus in its own end, victimizing Alexander Wennberg's line, the same line on the ice when the Caps scored their first goal.
Dmitry Orlov kept the puck in the Jackets' zone at the right point, and Travis Boyd collected it and cut right to the slot. Leaning left, Boyd went back to linemate Dmitrij Jaskin on his right, and the pass deflected off Jaskin's skate and through Bobrovsky to make it 2-0 at 10:19.
"I'll take it," says Jaskin, "even if it was off the skate, I'll take it any day."

Bobrovsky made an early save on Chandler Stephenson's two-on-one try, and he made a dazzling glove save to deny Evgeny Kuznetsov to keep the Jackets from falling down further.
At the other end, Braden Holtby made a couple of keys stops as well, preserving the Caps' two-goal cushion. He denied Josh Anderson in a one-on-one situation after Jonas' Siegenthaler's stick exploded at the offensive blueline, and showed strong lateral movement to take the net away from Artemi Panarin on a weak side bid late in the frame.
Washington expanded its lead after winning a faceoff at the Columbus line with just over half a minute left in the first. Beginning with Andre Burakovsky along the right wing all, all five Caps on the ice touched the puck in a span of less than five seconds, culminating in Alex Ovechkin's 22nd goal of the season with 18.8 seconds left in the frame.
Burakovsky pushed it lower to Nicklas Backstrom, who fed John Carlson at center point. Seeing Carlson moving to the middle as he received the pass, Michal Kempny crept down to the left circle, and Carlson wheeled the puck to him next, creating a mini two-on-one down low. Kempny put it right on Ovechkin's stick, and the Caps' captain chipped it over Bobrovsky to make it a 3-0 game.
That was the end of Bobrovsky's night; Joonas Korpisalo came on in relief at the start of the second period.

Washington was able to weather occasional pushes from the Jackets over the game's final 40 minutes. Whenever the Jackets would threaten to seize the game's momentum, the Caps were able to put together an offensive zone shift or to make a play to get an exit and a change, or put together a successful penalty kill. Their crisp and well-executed breakouts were poison to the Columbus forecheck, and the Caps were the team with more of a forechecking presence on this night.
The Caps' fourth line delivered a strong shift late in the second, and Holtby made a couple big key stops early on the Jackets' first power play chance of the night, which came late in the middle period.
Washington executed three more successful kills in the third, and added a fourth goal just after the midpoint of the third to account for the 4-0 final. At the end of his shift, Ovechkin fed Boyd at the back door on an odd-man break, and the rookie forward buried it for his first NHL goal at 11:04.
"It's obviously a night I'll always remember," says Boyd. "It's pretty cool how it worked out for me, having my first [NHL] assist be on an Ovi goal and then he feeds me a beautiful pass and I had a wide open net for my first goal."
Saturday's win sends the Caps home from a three-game road trip with a 2-1-0 mark, and it also gives Washington nine wins in its last 11 games, and a three-point lead over the Jackets in the Metro.
"It was a really good 60-minute win for us," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "We went through a little bit of a tough outing earlier in the month, losing a game when we were ahead by a few goals, so it was a good point of reference to keep us playing all the way through tonight. I thought it was a real strong effort."