POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 2, Coyotes 0

Nothing At All - Playing the finale of a five-game road trip in Arizona on Friday night, the Caps fought through fatigue and their third time zone in a week's time, managing to eke out a 2-0 victory over the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena, a building that has been difficult for them over the years.

Conor Sheary scored just past the midpoint of the first period, and Vitek Vanecek stopped all 19 shots he faced in the Washington nets, making Sheary's marker stand up until the game's final minute when John Carlson hit an empty Arizona net from long distance to account for the 2-0 final.
Arizona entered the game with an eight-game losing streak (0-7-1) in which it had yielded an average of nearly six goals per game. But the Coyotes defended well against the Caps, and it took some singular focus for Washington to get through the 60 minutes of hockey to claim the two points at the end.
"It did," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I think our guys were muscling through tonight. Again, it's the end of the road trip, 11 days, and you're changing cities and you're getting into cities late, and everything's off a little bit. And so I thought it was a really gutsy effort to stay focused and stay with the effort that we needed to be successful."
Vanecek's shutout was his fourth of the season and the sixth of the sophomore netminder's career. It was also Washington's sixth road shutout of the season, breaking the previous franchise record of five road whitewashes set in 1983-84 and matched in 1998-99.
"Yeah, end of a long road trip against a team that's out of the playoffs, they're trying to plug in some young guys," says Sheary. "Sometimes those can be dangerous games. They did get some odd man rushes, and Vitek made the saves when he needed to. But overall, it was a gritty win and a good job by us."
Vanecek's shutout enabled the Caps to complete the trip with a 3-1-1 mark, bringing home seven of a possible 10 points.
"It's not exactly the easiest game to play in, end of a road trip," says Caps defenseman Justin Schultz. "[Vitek] made some big saves for us there at the end, and we got the two points. At this time of year, that's pretty much all that matters."
Glory Road - With Friday's win, the Caps improved to 25-8-6 on the road this season, the best mark in the NHL from a points percentage (.718) standpoint. Washington's total of eight regulation losses on the road is the fewest in the League, and the Caps can match their franchise record (set in 2015-16) of 27 road victories, if they are able to sweep their last two road games of the season, on Thursday against the Islanders and Friday against the Rangers in New York.
The Capitals are 9-1-2 in their last dozen road games.
"I don't know, I feel like we get asked this question all the time," says Sheary of Washington's road success. "There's no rhyme or reason to it; I don't know if we prepare differently or just approach games differently, but it seems like everyone buys in. We're a veteran team, we're not afraid to play on the road and sometimes the young team you are, I think we've just done a great job all year of that."
Washington has allowed an average of just 2.74 goals per game on the road this season, the fifth best mark in the NHL.
"That's a good road trip for us," says Schultz. "It wasn't easy. A lot of travel and time away and playing every other night. It's a tough schedule and the guys did a great job."
Sweet Sixteen - Carlson's empty-net goal was his 16th goal of the season, a career high. His previous career best was 15 goals in the pandemic-abbreviated campaign of 2019-20 when he was the runner-up for the Norris Trophy. With 69 points (16 goals, 53 assists) on the season, Carlson is now a point shy of the third 70-point season of his NHL career.
Good Fellas - For the second time this season, the Caps got through Friday's game without taking a single penalty. They also did so in a Dec. 4 game against Columbus in Washington.
On the flip side of that coin, the Coyotes went through Friday's game without a power play, the fifth time they've done so this season, a frachise record.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears spent Friday night on the road, facing the Phantoms in Lehigh Valley. In a seesaw affair in which each team scored once in each period, the Bears came away with the win on Brett Leason's overtime goal.
After the Phantoms took a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the first period, Hershey evened the score on Bobby Nardella's sixth goal of the season at 10:21 of the first. Garrett Pilon and Mike Sgarbossa picked up assists on Nardella's goal.
At 10:23 of the second period, Hershey jumped in front on Aliaksei Protas's eighth goal of the season, with Leason and Cody Franson drawing assists. The Hershey lead lasted less than two minutes, and the two rivals entered the third period all even at 2-2.
Lucas Johansen restored the Hershey lead at 6:03 of the third with a single assist from Protas, but again the Bears' advantage was short-lived. Lehigh Valley pulled even less than a minute later, and overtime was needed to settle the score.
Leason settled it at 2:02 of the extra session with help from Nardella, and the Bears claimed the two points as well as a berth in the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Pheonix Copley stopped 13 of 16 shots in the Hershey nets to improve to 18-11-5 on the season.
The 34-30-6-4 Bears are back in action on Saturday night at Giant Center when they host the Phantoms in a rematch of Friday night's tilt.
By The Numbers - Carlson led the Caps with 23:36 in ice time … Lars Eller led Washington with four shots on net … Carlson and Anthony Mantha led the Caps with six shot attempts each … T.J. Oshie and Martin Fehervary had three hits each to lead the Caps … Fehervary led the Caps with three blocked shots … Eller won 10 of 14 face-offs (71 percent).