Morgan Frost scored for the Flames (21-25-5), who have scored just one goal in each of their past three games and have lost them all (0-2-1) since defenseman Rasmus Andersson was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday. Devin Cooley made 35 saves.
“I thought our first period was great, the way we came out,” forward Connor Zary said. “Then it fell of a little bit and we let them dictate the game for sure in the second period. It was a little bit better in the third, but still they got the best of us.”
Frost gave Calgary a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 6:09 of the first period. He took a pass from Zary and cut through the slot before letting go a wrist shot that beat Thompson to the top corner over his blocker.
“I thought the first period was one of our better periods in a while,” said Frost, who credited Yegor Sharangovich for helping set up his goal, despite not getting an assist. “‘Sharky’ did a good job driving the middle and opening up a shot lane for me.”
Lapierre scored at 6:33 of the second period to pull the Capitals even at 1-1. John Carlson’s wrist shot from the point hit Flames defenseman Yan Kuznetsov’s skates and bounced right to Lapierre, who snapped in a shot from the left post past Cooley.
“Guys were going nuts on the bench,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “‘Lappy’ works so hard and he cares so much and he’s such a good teammate. Every guy in there pulls for him and is doing everything they can to help him be successful on the ice.”
Lapierre said, “Johnny kind of jumped into my arms. It felt like I scored my first goal all over again. I don’t want that to happen too often, but 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.”
After outshooting Washington 16-8 in the opening period, the Flames were outshot 17-4 by the Capitals in the second. Defenseman Kevin Bahl registered Calgary’s first shot of the period at 16:27.
“The first period was good and that’s the way we need to play the game,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “Obviously, the second and third weren’t the same. They got better, but I don’t think we stayed with what made us successful in the first period.”
Protas swatted in a rebound at 7:35 of the third period to put the Capitals up 2-1. Justin Sourdif outbattled Flames defenseman Brayden Pachal to get the puck in the corner before passing the puck to Wilson, whose initial shot was stopped by Cooley.
“It was just getting to the net and a lucky rebound for me found a way,” Protas said. “It started from a great forecheck from ‘Willy’ and ‘Sourdy’ winning this puck battle. That’s what he’s good at. A good goal all around started from them.”
