Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks Nip Washington Capitals, 2-1 ...

Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals lost to the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 2-1 at Rogers Arena on Saturday to fall to 33-11-5 (.724 points percentage) this season and 2-1-0 on their season-long five-game road trip. Washington’s winning and point-streaks ended at six and 12 (9-0-3), respectively. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 23 saves in the loss.

Washington’s Lines

Connor McMichael — Dylan Strome — Alex OvechkinAliaksei Protas — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom WilsonTaylor Raddysh — Lars Eller — Ethen FrankBrandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd —Andrew Mangiapane

Rasmus Sandin — John CarlsonMartin Fehervary — Matt RoyJakob Chychrun — Trevor Van Riemsdyk

LindgrenLogan Thompson

• Scratched
  • LW Jakub Vrana
  • D Dylan McIlrath
  • D Alexander Alexeyev
• Injured
  • LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
  • C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
  • RW T.J. Oshie (back)

After making 22 saves for his first shutout of the campaign in a 3-0 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, Lindgren started consecutive games for the first time this season with Thompson, a Calgary native, set to get the nod on Tuesday at the Calgary Flames, according to head coach Spencer Carbery.

Vancouver’s Lines

Danton Heinen — J.T. Miller — Brock BoeserNils Hoglander — Elias Pettersson — Linus KarlssonJake DeBrusk – Pius Suter — Conor GarlandMax Sasson — Teddy Blueger — Phil Di Giuseppe

Quinn Hughes — Filip HronekElias Pettersson — Carson SoucyDerek Forbort — Vincent Desharnais

Kevin LankinenThatcher Demko

• Scratched
  • D Mark Friedman
• Injured
  • RW Kieffer Sherwood (lower-body)
  • C Dakota Joshua (leg)
  • D Noah Juulsen (undisclosed)
• Suspended
  • D Tyler Myers

First Period

Scoring

• 12:23, 1-0 Vancouver: After getting a pass by Hoglander from the right half-wall, Hughes walked around Duhaime from the top to the slot and backhanded a shot over the blocker of Lindgren.

  Quinn Hughes opens the scoring with a backhanded beauty! ???? pic.twitter.com/50FakylVuG

  — Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 26, 2025

Stats

• 13-12 Washington in shots
• .737 Washington on faceoffs
• Washington did not score on their first two power plays
  • Vancouver had two opportunities
• 7-3 Vancouver in hits
• 6-2 Vancouver in blocked shots
• 6-6 in giveaways

Graphs: Natural StatTrick

Second Period

Scoring

• 1:24, 2-0: Hughes walked the blueline and let a wrist shot go from up top that passed a maze of traffic and the blocker of Lindgren after Boeser banked a pass off of the wall to him from down low.

HOW DID QUINN HUGHES FIND THE SPACE ON THIS GOAL ????

He’s on hatty watch ???? pic.twitter.com/ydKxAUVFqz

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 26, 2025

Stats

• 23-21 Washington in shots
  • including 11-8 in the third
• .588 Washington on faceoffs
• Both teams had two power plays
• 15-9 Vancouver in hits
• 12-11 Vancouver in blocked shots
• 11-11 in giveaways

Third Period

Scoring

• 12:31, 2-1: After Protas’ point shot was stopped, the puck leaked out while Lankinen attempted to cover the puck. Dubois was right there to stuff the rebound into an open cage. Dubois has scored all three of Washington’s goals against Vancouver this season and three in his last four games. Dubois became the ninth Capital to reach the 10-goal mark this season. The Capitals are one of two teams in the NHL to have nine players with 10 or more goals (also Carolina Hurricanes). Protas extended his point streak to four games (2-3-5). With the secondary helper, McMichael has recorded four assists in his last four games.

#ALLCAPS 1-2. NEEDED THAT ONE. DUBOIS CLEANS UP THE LOOSE PUCK FOR A MUCH NEEDED GOAL pic.twitter.com/5HzQJjVfEk

— x – Capitals Replays ???? (@capsreplays) January 26, 2025

Stats

• 32-25 Washington in shots
  • 10-4 Washington in the third
• .545 Washington on draws
• 24-14 Vancouver in hits
• 19-15 Vancouver in blocked shots
• 19-15 Washington in giveaways

Washington’s lead over the Carolina Hurricanes for first place in the Metropolitan Division remained at seven points, but Washington has a game in hand.

Washington’s 12-game point streak tied for the seventh longest in franchise history and marked the team’s first point streak of 12 or more games since the 2019-20 season (13 from 10/16/2019–11/13/2019: 11-0-2).

Next game: Tuesday at Calgary (9 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market).

By Harrison Brown