Defenseman Jakob Chychrun, back in his home region, scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and added two assists while leading the Washington Capitals to a 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday in Sunrise, Fla.
Washington’s Lars Eller scored two goals, as he and teammate
Ivan Miroshnichenko each logged an empty-netter.
The Capitals got 20 saves from Logan Thompson, who improved his record to 9-1-1 in his first season with Washington.
Eller and Thompson shared top honors on the night with Chychrun, who was born and raised in Boca Raton, just a short drive from Sunrise.
The reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers fell to 1-6-0 in their past seven games. They got a goal from Niko Mikkola and 27 saves from backup goalie Spencer Knight.
Panthers center Sam Reinhart had his 13-game points streak snapped. It was tied for the longest points streak in the NHL this season, and Reinhart had 11 goals and eight assists during that span.
The teams played to a 1-1 draw in the first period.
Seven minutes in, Florida opened the scoring. Sam Bennett held the puck in the middle of the ice, drawing two defenders before dishing to Mikkola on the left wing. Mikkola, from the left circle, scored his first goal of the season with a shot off the crossbar.
Washington tied the score with 17:49 gone as Chychrun stopped just inside the blue line and whistled a brilliant pass to Eller for a goal from point-blank range. Eller lifted the puck over Knight’s blocker.
After a scoreless second period, Washington took a 2-1 lead with a five-on-three power-play goal. With just 78 seconds gone in the third, Chychrun scored from the point as he used a Pierre-Luc Dubois screen to beat Knight glove side.
The two penalties that set up that five-on-three were against Uvis Balinskis for tripping Tom Wilson and against Aaron Ekblad for slashing Connor McMichael.
With 2:24 left in the game, Florida pulled Knight for an extra attacker, and that backfired as Washington got two empty-net goals.
–Field Level Media
