‘We Hung Tough’: Capitals See Win As Another Key Step Forward

The Washington Capitals ended a wild 24 hours in Winnipeg on a high note, as they piled on the goals and held on for a big 5-2 win over the Jets, who are tied for the Central Division lead.

Trevor van Riemsdyk, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Marcus Johansson, Lars Eller and Alex Ovechkin all scored for Washington and Charlie Lindgren stopped 29 of 31 shots (.935 save percentage). The Capitals have now won four straight games and are one point out of a Wild Card spot.

READ MORE ON WHN: Takeaways & Everything To Know from Washington Capitals Win Over Winnipeg Jets

Here’s what they had to say following the win:

Lars Eller

On the Capitals scoring goals: “I think took another step in the right direction with our 5-on-5 game today, especially in the second period, we were really strong and we got contributions from a lot of places. And Chucky stood strong in net, so just one of these really good 50-minute efforts where it was only first five minutes there in the third, they pushed and they were able to get two quick ones. And after that, I think we just responded really well. we didn’t panic and kept them from getting too many chances after that. Just a really good overall game tonight.”

On jumping out to a multi-goal lead: “We haven’t had a lot of those which is a little uncharacteristic of us. But like I said before, the last two weeks we’re seeing little steps in the right direction, every game or every week, we’re trending the right way and I think we can see we’ll see a lot more games like this tonight.”

Charlie Lindgren

On his save on Pierre-Luc Dubois: “Yeah saw him just saw him hanging out by me. Looked like maybe the puck was gonna get out of the zone. Yeah, he just hung back, they got the puck to him, I just felt like I got a good read on it. He’s a good player obviously.”

On standing tall and protecting the lead: “You like that cushion. I love that. It was good to see. We had a pretty solid first period, I thought. Our power play came up big, obviusly JoJo with the big penalty shot goal. To score four goals as a goalie, you love it. Just a credit to our guys again for competing tonight, working hard, putting the puck in the net. Winnipeg obivously pushed back toward the end of the second, they pushed in the third but we hung tough. Good win for us.”

Evgeny Kuznetsov

On his pass to Marcus Johansson that led to the penalty shot and shorthanded goal: “I saw that he’s coming with me, so something came to my mind that I just need a little touch. Because I fell, their defenseman didn’t see that JoJo was coming from behind with his speed. Sometimes those ideas come to my head, and I’m glad that it worked out pretty well.”

On his power-play goal alone in front: “They tell us that they had good goalie, we have to go screen. I saw that Johnny got the puck and know they gonna probably both guys go on Big Man. And I just gotta get to open that backdoor, and I knew Johnny was gonna pass it for sure.”

On Peter Laviolette’s timeout for Washington and what it meant for the Capitals: “Be honest with you I didn’t hear anything. You know, it’s basic stuff, and you know, half of that I heard, and I would like to keep inside probably., but there was nothing bad. it was all positive, and I think that timeout changed the game.”