The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Sunday at Capital One Arena, jumping to a 4-0 lead before surviving a late rally. Elias Pettersson scored his first goal of the season early, while the Canucks managed injuries to key forwards. Thatcher Demko made 28 saves to secure Vancouver's third straight road win.
The game began with Vancouver striking quickly. At 0:59 of the first period, Elias Pettersson snapped a shot past Charlie Lindgren from the right face-off circle, assisted by Conor Garland, for a 1-0 lead. This was Pettersson's first goal of the season after recording two assists in his previous five games. The goal was the third-fastest in the NHL that season.
Vancouver extended their advantage late in the first. Tyler Myers scored his 100th NHL goal at 17:11, burying a wrist shot over Lindgren during a netfront scrum to make it 2-0. Washington challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal stood, leading to a power play. Kiefer Sherwood capitalized at 17:52, knocking in a rebound for a 3-0 lead on the man advantage. Sherwood now has four goals in six games.
In the second period, Teddy Blueger pushed the score to 4-0 at 4:54, settling a loose puck in the slot and firing it past Lindgren. Washington responded with Ryan Leonard's power-play goal at 13:42, scoring on a rebound after Demko's pad save, assisted by Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome, to cut the deficit to 4-1.
The third period saw Washington's rally. Jakob Chychrun scored at 9:01 on a cross-crease pass from Hendrix Lapierre, making it 4-2. With Lindgren pulled at 17:46, John Carlson's slap shot from the point beat Demko for a 4-3 score. Vancouver outshot 12-5 in the period but blocked 24 shots total, including several by Pettersson and Myers on Alex Ovechkin late. Demko stopped an Ovechkin deflection with one second left.
Injuries plagued Vancouver: Filip Chytil and Jonathan Lekkerimaki left after the first period with undisclosed issues, Teddy Blueger exited in the third, and Brock Boeser was absent for personal reasons. "We had a really good start, and as the game went on we lost a couple of guys, so we were trying to keep it together," Canucks coach Adam Foote said. Both teams stand at 4-2-0.