Aliaksei Protas scored a pair of goals and Ryan Leonard delivered the first game-winning goal of his NHL career on Saturday night at UBS Arena, helping the Caps to their first victory of the season, a 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders. Logan Thompson (34 saves) was sharp in the Washington nets, particularly in the third when he faced 20 of his 36 shots on the night.
Protas turned in a beastly performance; he led the Caps with five shots on net and eight shot attempts, and he had several strong scoring chances in addition to his two goals.
“Made in a laboratory,” quips Leonard of Protas. “It’s crazy. We all say he’s the best player in the League. It’s special; he’s a special player.”
After dropping its opener to Boston at home on Wednesday, Washington played a more assertive game from the outset tonight, grabbing an early lead and gradually expanding it. But the Isles rallied late with a pair of power-play goals – including the first NHL goal for 18-year-old defenseman Matthew Schaefer – after the Caps opened up a 4-0 lead late in the second.
“I felt like early in the game, we were on our toes; our [defensemen] were active,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We were turning pucks over. And we get rewarded on the first or second goal; we keep a puck in at the blue line, it turns over quick, we're attacking the net.
I just thought we were playing on our toes, and guys were being aggressive in really, really good spots. And it set us up for the night to have the start we did. We're able to hang on and face some adversity in the third period; [the Islanders] pushed and you could feel the energy in the building came alive there, and we had to hang on.”
The Caps were quick to the scoreboard on Saturday night. Martin Fehervary – who suffered a season-ending knee injury when Washington last played here on April 15 – got the scoring started at 1:50 of the first. Fehervary won a puck race along the half wall in New York ice, pushing the puck back to the left point for Alex Ovechkin, and essentially trading places with the Caps captain. Ovechkin put a shot toward the net, and it was blocked, but Fehervary was right at the top of the paint to backhand the puck home for Washington’s first lead of the season.
Eleven minutes later, Protas doubled the Washington lead. Jakob Chychrun made a nifty play at the left point to keep the puck in the zone, then pushed it to Protas in the slot. The big winger fired it past Ilya Sorokin on the stick side at 13:52 to make it a 2-0 contest.
New York put some heat on the Caps early in the second period, putting eight pucks on Logan Thompson in the first six minutes of the frame. But the Caps again expanded their lead just ahead of the midpoint of the period, doing so seconds after the expiration of a Washington power play.
With Kyle Palmieri in the box for tripping Protas, the Caps’ power play unit applied some strong pressure on Sorokin and the Isles, generating a quartet of shots. As Palmieri exited the box and joined the play, Chychrun pump faked before dishing to Ryan Leonard in the slot, and the latter buried a wrist shot to make it 3-0 at 9:50.
Protas expanded the lead again with a breakaway strike at 15:30. As New York captain Anders Lee whirled and tried to put a puck deep from the right point, Protas blocked it and chased after it as it drifted out to neutral ice. With his lengthy strides, he easily outraced a couple of Islanders to the puck and beat Sorokin – again on the stick side – at 15:30.
“Yeah, that’s usually a good spot to go,” says Protas, asked whether he was intending to go stick side on Sorokin on both of his goals. “It’s not the favorite spot of the goalies, I think, and if I have a chance to go go quick, I’m usually – but not always – yeah.”
Late in the frame, Chychrun was boxed for elbowing Schaefer, creating the home team’s first power play of the game. Seven seconds later, Anthony Duclair struck from the right circle to make it a 4-1 game with 1:09 remaining in the second.
With the Isles on another power play early in the third, a goalmouth scramble took place in front of Thompson and the alert Schaefer bounded up from the point and punched a loose puck home to make it 4-2. The Caps believed that New York’s Bo Horvat was guilty of a hand pass that would nullify the goal, so Carbery issued a coach’s challenge after taking his timeout to consider further. Officials ruled against the Caps, saying it was Horvat’s arm and not his hand that came in contact with the puck.
“Good for him,” says Thompson of the Schaefer goal. “He's a good player. I was going into tonight, hoping it wouldn't be me. But no, he skates unbelievable for how young he is, and he fits right in. I think he's going to be a dominant player in this league for a while.”
The Caps killed off the ensuing power play, with Thompson making three saves and P-L Dubois blocking another attempt. Isles coach Patrick Roy pulled Sorokin with four minutes left, seeking the two goals needed to even the score. Thompson made six more stops in those four minutes to usher Washington’s first victory of the season to the finish line.
The Caps bused to Manhattan immediately after Saturday’s game; they finish the quick road trip and the early season set of back-to-backs Sunday against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
