Caps Follow Shootout With A Shutout, Win 5-0
If they keep this up, the Caps are going to have to schedule every game at 11am. In contrast to the back-and-forth nature of Saturday night’s affair, Sunday’s game was all Topeka as they completed the sweep of the Chicago Junior Bulldogs, won their fourth straight to start the season, and posted a shutout for the second consecutive Sunday.
“We are very thankful to Chicago for coming to Topeka this weekend. They are a very well coached team and professionally run,” said Head Coach Anthony Bohn. The Junior Bulldogs stepped into the void in Topeka’s schedule left by McKinney and, while the games will not count against Chicago’s record, greatly helped Topeka by providing meaningful games for the Capitals. “The four points from this weekend are huge but, more importantly, we are getting better as a team and that’s what we were looking to accomplish.”
Yu Hikosaka began the scoring by posting the game winner at 12:22 on a power play (assisted by Nick Manney). Hardijis Kupaks doubled things up at 16:20 (assisted by Manney and Tyler Brady) and the Caps hit intermission atop the Bulldogs 2-0.
Kole Hudson found the net in the second at 5:10 (assisted by Nick White and Hikosaka) to make it 3-0. Not long after that, Brady tallied the fourth goal of the day (assisted by Georgy Ostapchuk and Manney at 7:34). Unlike the previous night’s game, penalties were not a factor as both teams combined for only four penalty minutes through the second period.
That would change a bit in the third as the Caps fended off a pair of penalties early in the period (slashing and cross-checking respectively). Chicago was flagged for a couple of their own before Issac Lamb rocked Trenton Faber with a flagrant elbow resulting in a five minute major and game ejection for Lamb. On the ensuing power play, Nick Rizzo made Chicago pay with a wrister past Paku (assisted by Ostapchuk) that set the final score at 5-0.
The Capitals will hit the road next weekend for their first road series of the season as they face the Sugarland Imperials Saturday, Nov. 2nd (7pm), and Sunday, Nov. 3rd (11:30am). Fans can catch every second of the action at www.fasthockey.com. Keep up with #CapsFever all season long by liking us on Facebook and visiting www.topekacapitals.com. For more information on future games and tickets, call 785-286-PUCK.