The Capitals and Blues played through a sleepy first 20 minutes. The second 20 minutes were anything but as the two teams traded three goals within a four-minute span to leave the score 2-2 after the second period.
Scott Hannan scored his first goal of the season and his first as a Capital at 3:08 after a nice feed from Alex Ovechkin. Matt Hendricks won a scrum along the boards and pushed the puck to Ovechkin. Ovechkin found Hannan alone on the right faceoff circle. Hannan took his time and fired a top-shelf wrist shot that beat Ty Conklin.
The tie game would only last about two minutes. After the Caps won a faceoff in the offensive zone, John Erskine pinched on B.J. Crombeen, but Crombeen was able to break free. He would take the puck down the ice by himself and beat Michal Neuvirth with a wrist shot for his sixth goal of the season at 5:14.
Not to be outdone, Nicklas Backstrom would respond on what could be best described as a home run swing. Ovechkin passed the puck to Knuble as he entered the zone. Knuble attempted a pass to Backstrom, but it was deflected in the air. That didn't matter to Backstrom, who swung at the airborne rebound, which then bounced hard on the ice and back up into the goal. Backstrom's 16th of the season came at 6:48.
The Caps are 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Shots are 19-18 in favor of St. Louis.