*Photo from Japers Rink*
In the music city, it was not the seasoned veterans leading the way, but the young kids instead. Beck Malenstyn scored, Aliaksei Protas added a goal, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Nashville Predators with a 3-0 shutout victory on Saturday night in Nashville.
The youth movement of the Capitals picked up the slack on Saturday, powering the Capitals offense to improve to 5-4-0. They've won 3 of their last 4 and 5 of 7, sitting in 5th place in the Metropolitan Division. 4 different Capitals skaters also registered assists.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said of the win after the game that "I liked the directness of the game that we played, the decisions we made with the puck. I liked the way we defended. The Predators are a physical team. We had to show up and be physically ready, so it was a lot of positives tonight."
The first period went scoreless as both goalies put on a show, and most of the second period went without a goal. However, at the 12:49 mark of the second, it was Malenstyn who got the Capitals on the board, giving them a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season, with Nic Dowd getting the lone assist.
After the goal by Malenstyn, there was another slight drought, until Protas scored to double the lead, making it a 2-0 score at the 6:44 mark of the 3rd period, assisted by Nick Jensen and Conor Sheary. With 2:45 left on the clock and the net empty, Alex Ovechkin scored to seal the win, making it a 3-0 score with an assist from Dmitry Orlov.
Getting the start in goal for the Capitals was Darcy Kuemper, who put on a show for the Nashville crowd. Kuemper picked up the 34 save shutout, marking his first shutout in a Capitals uniform and the 26th of his NHL career. His record on the season improved to 4-3-0 as a result.
Kuemper said of picking up the shutout win that "I was feeling good coming into the game about the way my game has been trending. Tonight, the guys did a great job in front of me, so it made my job a lot easier. When you are seeing pucks clean and everything like that, you can kind of get into the rhythm."
On the other side of the ice was Nashville's Juuse Saros, who also had a pretty good game. Saros turned aside 32 out of the 34 shots the Capitals sent on goal, which was good for a .941 save percentage in the defeat.
Predators captain Roman Josi said after the game that "It's definitely a disappointing loss. It just wasn't good enough. We didn't start well enough. We didn't start the way we wanted. We knew what our identity was, and we didn't do it in the first period. I thought it got better as the game went on, but we've got to make sure we do it right away."
Up next, the Capitals get back in action with a Monday showdown against the Carolina Hurricanes, with Kuemper likely to start. Saros will likely be back in net for the Predators when they face the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.
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