#CapsIsles Postgame Notebook: Six Pack Attack

A week after their scoring attack ran virtually dry in California, the Caps got well offensively at the expense of the New York Islanders. Washington scored 13 goals - two of them empty-netters - in just over 24 hours against the Isles, sweeping a set of back-to-backs from New York in convincing fashion.

After taking a 7-3 win over the Isles in Brooklyn on Thursday with six different goal scorers, lighting the lamp, the Caps again got goals from six different shooters on Friday in a 6-3 victory over the Islanders.

Getting 13 goals in two games without any of them coming from leading goal scorers Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov is a big plus for the Caps, but the four points they wrested from a listless Islanders squad is even more important at this juncture of the season.

Heading into the home-and-home set of games, we heard a lot about how desperate the Islanders would be with their playoff lives allegedly on the line. But the Isles only seemed desperate to continue their obsession with Tom Wilson and perhaps to avenge Andre Burakovsky's postgame comments after Thursday's win, when he remarked on how much room he had with which to work out on the ice.

With the Isles having just tied the score at 1-1 on a Matthew Barzal power-play goal early in the second period of Friday's game, Islanders winger Ross Johnston opted to go after Wilson, likely for his clean hit on Casey Cizikas in Thursday's game, a check that seemed to divert the Islanders' focus in that game as well. Johnston incurred an instigator minor and a game misconduct for his troubles, and the Caps scored on the ensuing power play, taking the lead for good with help from Isles winger Cal Clutterbuck, who obligingly committed another foul early in the power play to give Washington a lengthy two-man advantage.

Caps coach Barry Trotz didn't think his team played its best game in Thursday's 7-3 win over the Isles in Brooklyn, but he was happier with their performance on Friday. The Caps kept the Isles from generating speed through neutral ice, and they limited New York to just 13 shots on net at five-on-five.

"You get an opportunity to get someone with their backs against the wall," says Trotz, "and you want to push them through the wall with the two wins.

"It's hard to win back-to-backs, especially with the parity in the league, and they've got a very good hockey team with some tremendous players over there. We won our game [on Thursday], if you will, and they were desperate, and they wanted to make a statement in our building. And we didn't let them. I thought that was a good response."

Sometimes, the truth hurts, and Burakovsky wasn't just making stuff up. The truth is the Islanders have surrendered an average of 3.59 goals per game this season, the worst mark in the league by far. The gap between the Isles and 30th place Ottawa (3.36 goals against per game) is the largest gap between any of the 31 teams on that ledger.

In the wake of Friday night's loss, the Islanders have surrendered five or more goals in 20 of their 71 games this season. Clearly, the Caps aren't the only team in the league that has found some room with which to work in the Islanders' end of the ice this season. This is not a playoff team.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Caps scored at least six goals in each end of a home-and-home set with an opponent for just the second time in the last 30 seasons. The only other instance was when the Caps downed the Senators 8-6 in Ottawa on Dec. 29, 2007 and defeated Ottawa by a 6-3 count back in Washington on Jan. 1, 2008.

Man Down - The only downer for the Caps from Friday's win was the loss of Kuznetsov, who left the game late in the second period with an upper body injury. Kuznetsov did not return, and the Caps say he is day-to-day with that upper body injury, and won't make the trip to Philly for Sunday's game with the Flyers. That will end Kuznetsov's streak of 292 consecutive games played.

Kuznetsov is Washington's second leading scorer on the season, and he is tied for the team lead with 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in the month of March.

Back In The Saddle - Caps goalie Braden Holtby did not have a difficult first period on Friday against the Islanders. Making his first start in five games and in 10 days, Holtby faced only four shots in the game's first 20 minutes. Generally speaking, Holtby likes to feel some pucks and get some touches early in games, but the Caps had three first-period power plays and were effective at playing in the New York end of the ice all night at five-on-five, leaving Holtby with long stretches of inactivity.

Holtby made a big early stop on Isles captain John Tavares while Washington was on the power play and the game was scoreless, and he stopped a Tavares shot from the high danger area of the ice later in the first.

For the first time in 14 starts, Holtby got through the first frame without yielding a goal. All three of the goals against him on Friday came on the power play, and he made some key stops throughout the contest to keep the Isles' potent attack at bay. Although he didn't have to make many saves in the first, he did handle the puck several times in his own end in those first 20 minutes, doing so with aplomb each time and fueling a couple of clean breakouts.

"I think any type of play helps you to get into the game," says Holtby. "It doesn't have to be a shot, it can be someone missing the net or something. That can always help you to get into the game.

"Being able to watch a couple of games in a row, I didn't want to just sit there and stare into the crowd or whatever. I wanted to pay attention and to see what was happening. Playing the puck, that's one of the things you can learn from watching, to see where are guys are going to be more often because when you're playing, it's a little harder to see that. That's one of the benefits I tried to take out if it, and the guys did a great job of getting open and ready for passes. I think it helped our breakout in the first, for sure."

Holtby's biggest stop came after the Isles closed to within 5-3 on a Tavares goal with 3:46 left. Less than half a minute later, the ever-dangerous Barzal got loose on a breakaway, but Holtby foiled him.

At night's end, Holtby had his 30th victory of the season, and some positive feelings from being back in the crease.

"He looked really confident," says Trotz of Holtby. "You could tell by his play with the puck in the corner on the power play that one time. So he's feeling some confidence, so that's good."

Statement Game - Playing the second night of back-to-back games and with a handful of extra bodies on hand, Trotz elected to change his lineup on Friday despite going in with a modest three-game winning streak. Forwards Chandler Stephenson and Brett Connolly came out of the lineup while Alex Chiasson and Travis Boyd drew in. On the blueline, Jakub Jerabek watched Friday's game while Christian Djoos got a sweater.

Chiasson made the biggest impact, scoring for the first time since Jan. 2 and adding a pair of assists. A healthy scratch in eight of Washington's previous 11 games, Chiasson matched his single-game career best with the third three-point game of his career,

"The last six weeks or so have been difficult for me," admits Chiasson. "But I've tried to keep a positive attitude at the rink and to put in the time. And obviously when I get my chance - like tonight - I want to make sure I come in ready. I probably wasn't expecting that type of night, but obviously it's nice when you put in the work and get rewarded at this time of the season."

Chiasson's three-point night was his first since he totaled three points (one goal, two assists) and a Gordie Howe hat trick for Calgary against Anaheim on Dec. 4, 2016.

Flying V - Jakub Vrana's scoring drought from earlier in the season is most certainly a thing of the past. Vrana had a goal and an assist in Friday's game, giving him three goals and six points in his last eight games.

What's remarkable is that Vrana has skated fewer than 13 minutes in all eight of those games, and he has logged 10:04 or less in four of the eight. Vrana is using his speed as a weapon, and doing so to great effect.

Only Nicklas Backstrom (four) has more goals than Vrana's total of three this month for the Capitals.

Powering Up - Washington's power play outfit is 5-for-13 (38.5%) in its last five games and it is 11-for-32 (34.4%) in its last dozen games. The Caps have had only 32 power play opportunities in those last 12 games, but a quarter of them came courtesy of the undisciplined Islanders on Friday.

The eight power play opportunities for Washington in Friday night's game represents a single-game season high, and it matches the total the Caps accrued in their previous four games combined.

At Seventeen - With his second long distance, empty-net goal in less than a week, Caps center Lars Eller has established a career best of 17 goals this season, one more than he managed to score for Montreal in 2011-12.

Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears earned a 3-2 home ice victory over the Islanders' AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, on Friday night at Giant Center.

After a scoreless first, the Bears went down a goal in the second before Hampus Gustafsson tied it at 1-1 at 15:49 of the second period. Gustafsson's goal, his first of the season, came on a single assist from Zach Sill.

The Bears were down 2-1 heading into the third, but Hershey rallied late for the victory. Liam O'Brien tied it with his 15th goal of the season at 3:26 of the third, getting help from Madison Bowey and Wayne Simpson.

Anthony Peluso supplied what would prove to be the game-winning goal at 15:18 of the third period. Peluso's fourth goal of the season came off assists from Lucas Johansen and Gustafsson.

Pheonix Copley stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced to raise his record to 14-15-6 on the season.

Hershey gets right back at it on Saturday night at Giant Center, hosting the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Down a level, the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays suffered a 1-0 shutout loss on home ice on Saturday, falling to the Idaho Steelheads at North Charleston Coliseum.

Stingrays goalie Jeff Jakaitis stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced, but fell to 16-7-2 on the season.

South Carolina is now off until Monday when it visits the Gladiators in Atlanta.

By The Numbers - Matt Niskanen led the Caps with 22:19 in ice time and four blocked shots … Backstrom led the Caps with four shots on net … Brooks Orpik led Washington with four hits … Jay Beagle won five of six draws (83%) and Eller won nine of 13 (69%).