Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson both tallied a pair of goals and an assist to help the visiting Ottawa Senators spoil Alex Ovechkin’s 1,500th career game in a dominant 7-1 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
Shane Pinto, Nick Cousins, and Thomas Chabot all joined Cozens and Batherson on the scoresheet, while Linus Ullmark made just 12 saves on 13 shots.
Tim Stutzle, David Perron, Claude Giroux and Artem Zub all picked up two assists in the win.
Trevor Van Riemsdyk tallied the Capitals’ lone goal, while Charlie Lindgren recorded 27 saves in the losing effort.
Cozens opened the scoring for the Senators just under two minutes into the contest as he redirected Zub’s pass into the back of the net.
With 8:27 left in the first, Lindgren flashed the leather on Batherson after the forward toe-dragged it to his backhand before being denied by the Capitals goaltender.
Pinto doubled up the Senators lead as he continued his red-hot start with a questionable goal at 3:27 of the middle period.
Pinto’s eighth goal of the campaign was ruled as valid via review as the puck crossed the line prior to the Senators forward being pushed into Lindgren by Jakob Chychrun.
Cozens swiftly tallied his second of the game a minute later as the Senators took advantage of the Capitals’ unsuccessful coach’s challenge.
Batherson fed Cozens at the back door, who turned it over to the backhand before recording his seventh career multi-goal game.
Cousins continued the onslaught at 13:42 of the second period as he fooled Lindgren on the breakaway, before slotting in the backhand shot to stretch the Senators’ lead to 4-0.
Ottawa kept the good times rolling early in the third as Batherson hopped on Cozen’s rebound and extended the lead to 5-0 with his first goal of the season.
Van Riemsdyk spoiled Ullmark’s shutout bid at 5:04 of the final frame.
Chabot then added to the Senators lead with their third power-play goal of the game at 9:47.
Batherson tacked on his second of the game with just over five minutes left.
The Capitals suffered a costly loss in the first five minutes of the game as Dylan Strome left the game with a lower-body injury after crashing into the boards.
–Field Level Media
