Capitals defenseman plays key role in 5-1 win over Blue Jackets – Hockey Writer – Washington Capitals

admin November 25, 2025

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Capitals defenseman plays key role in 5-1 win over Blue Jackets – Hockey Writer – Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals hosted their home fans at Capital One Arena on Monday night with a 5-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Capitals and Blue Jackets defensemen combined to score in the game, a rarity in today’s NHL. Washington improves to 12-9-2 with the win, while Columbus falls to 11-8-3 in 2025.

Game summary

Washington’s Jakob Chychrun opened the scoring just shy of six minutes to give the home team a 1-0 advantage. The veteran blueliner gathered the rebound on a fanned shot attempt in the possession and fired the shot over Elvis Merzlikins’ glove before finding twine behind the net. Chichlen’s goal was D.C.’s only goal of the first period

The Capitals scored three goals in a span of 3 minutes and 28 seconds late in the second period to open the game. Tom Wilson scored his team-leading 12th goal at 16:29 of midfield to extend the Capitals’ lead to 2-0. Chichlen scored his second goal of the night (and eighth of the season) to extend Washington’s lead to 3-0 with 15 seconds left. But Washington didn’t stop there, as John Carlson scored with 3 seconds left in the second intermission to give the Capitals a 4-0 lead.

Washington Capitals defender Jakob Chychrun celebrates after scoring against the Columbus Blue Jackets (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)

Martin Fehervary made things worse for Columbus with a goal four minutes into the third period. However, Denton Mateychuk responded 1:45 later to help the Blue Jackets get past the bump line for the first time, 5-1. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s 5 of the 6 goals the blueliners scored in the game (or 83 percent of what the math was saying earlier). It was the only mistake Logan Thompson made in the Capitals’ impressive victory. Washington’s netminder made 22 saves on 23 shots in the win, while Merz Linkins made 26 saves on 31 shots.

Both teams will return to the ice Wednesday night before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Washington (12-9-2) will host the Winnipeg Jets (12-9-0) during the 2024-25 regular season in a battle between the two best teams. Columbus (11-9-3) returns to Nationwide Arena for a midweek matchup against the slumping Toronto Maple Leafs (9-10-3).