OTTWAWA, Ontario — Braden Holtby and T.J. Oshie pushed the Washington Capitals’ winning to streak to five.
Holtby made 30 saves for his second straight shutout and fifth of the season and the Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators 1-0 on Saturday night.
Oshie scored 1:38 into the game to help the Capitals improve to 25-9-5.
Mike Condon made 19 saves for Ottawa.
“One mental lapse on the goal and a team like that is going to capitalize, but I thought we played pretty good for the most part with lots of shots and lots of chances,” Condon said. “Holtby is one of the best goalies in the league but all-in-all it was a pretty good effort.”
The Senators have lost four straight to drop to 20-14-4. They played for the first time falling 2-1 to the Capitals on Jan. 1.
“It’s always a concern when you’re not on the ice and you have a long break like that, but I thought we were pretty sharp considering,” Senators forward Zack Smith said.
On the goal, the Capitals broke into the Senators’ zone and Oshie released a one-timer off a pass from Nicklas Backstrom past Condon.
“We scored on that controlled breakout, and after that there wasn’t much happening between the blue lines on both sides,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “We jammed it up and they jammed it up,”
Backstrom earned his 500th NHL assist on the goal.
“I’ll remember this,” Backstrom said. “I knew it right away because I had been reminded a couple of times. I thought we did a good job shutting them down, killing off power plays and Holtby was great back there making saves.”
Ottawa had a late power play in the third period after Karl Alzner was called for boarding Mark Stone. The Senators had some solid chances during the advantage, but were unable to beat Holtby.
They pulled Condon with 1:20 to play, but could only manage one shot on goal.
Early in the second period, Oshie took a hard hit from Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf at the Ottawa blue line. Oshie slowly made his way to the Washington bench favoring his left shoulder. After a few moments on the bench, Oshie went to the locker room. He returned later in the period, but sat out the third.
UP NEXT
Capitals: At Montreal on Monday.
Senators: Host Edmonton on Sunday.
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