Washington, DC – Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler each tallied a goal and an assist, and Tobias Enstrom added a trio of helpers on Tuesday night, as the Winnipeg Jets spoiled the Washington Capitals' home opener with a 4-2 triumph at Verizon Center.
Andrew Ladd and Jim Slater each scored once, while Ondrej Pavelec registered 32 saves to help the Jets earn their first victory of the lockout-shortened season.
"I thought it was a really solid effort from start to finish," Ladd remarked. "We had four lines going and we were smart with the pucks, and that led to a lot of good things."
Matt Hendricks and Troy Brouwer recorded a goal apiece and Braden Holtby was charged with all four goals on 39 shots for the Capitals, who opened their season with a 6-3 setback in Tampa Bay.
The Capitals had won their last 10 home openers, with their last loss coming on Oct. 6, 2000 against Los Angeles.
Washington struck at the 10:02 mark of the first when Hendricks deflected a Nicklas Backstrom pass into the back of the net with his skate, but the Jets countered with four unanswered goals to take control.
The first two came later in the first period while on the power play. From below the goal line, Kane tried to feed a pass through the slot that deflected off the skate of Washington defenseman John Carlson and trickled past Holtby to knot the game at the 12:34 mark.
Then, just under four minutes later, Ladd stepped into the slot and one-timed a shot past Holtby to give the Jets a 2-1 edge at 16:26.
Winnipeg added to its lead late in the second stanza, as Kane worked past his defender by banking the puck to himself off the left boards before sliding a pass through the slot to Wheeler, who one-timed it past Holtby for a 3-1 lead with 5:28 remaining.
Winnipeg tacked on another tally in the final minute of the frame when Slater got position in front of the net and tipped in a Dustin Byfuglien blast to make it 4-1.
Pavelec was able to keep the Capitals off the board for much of the third until Brouwer buried a power-play goal with 1:16 to play to account for the final margin.
"I thought we could have had better execution," admitted Washington coach Adam Oates, who fell to 0-2 in his brief NHL head coaching career. "We didn't give ourselves the opportunity to play the team game. We turned it over on the blue line too many times, little subtle things that could have gone better to help ourselves."
Game Notes
Washington defenseman Mike Green played in his 400th career NHL game ... Winnipeg has won four straight against the Capitals ... Byfuglien finished with two assists for the Jets ... Backstrom added two assists for the Capitals.
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