Panthers Come Up Short In DC Despite Pair Of Goals By Brady Tkachuk

The Florida Panthers kicked off their three-game road trip on Saturday afternoon in Washington D.C.

Florida held an early lead but couldn’t build on the momentum, ultimately falling to the Capitals 4-3 at Capital One Arena.

Florida did not score the first goal of the game in DC, but it did not take them long to respond to it.

Washington’s Jack St. Ivany put the Caps up 1-0 at the 2:21 mark, but 52 seconds later Brady Tkachuk forced a turnover in the offensive zone and after sending a pass to his brother Matthew, popped in the rebound from the side of the crease to knot the score at one.

Exactly halfway through the first period, Brady added a second goal.

This time Florida was on the power play and the younger Tkachuk was once again camped out next to Logan Thompson’s goal crease.

A centering pass from Matthew Tkachuk went off Sam Reinhart’s stick and back toward the crease, where Brady was waiting to lift the puck over Thompson and into the net, giving Florida a 2-1 lead with 10 minutes on the clock.

Brady is now up to 10 goals and 19 points over his past 12 games. 

That’s how the score would remain until about five minutes into the middle frame, when the Capitals scored ther first of two second period goals.

A sneaky shot by Alex Tuch tied the game at two, and poor zone coverage by Florida led to a goal by Aliaksei Protas that gave the Capitals a 3-2 lead that they took into the second intermission.

Washington doubled their lead on a slick goal by Pierre-Luc Dubois, who sliced through Florida’s defense before sliding the puck past Akira Schmid’s pad and into the net at the 4:42 mark of the third period.

Sam Bennett scored his fifth goal of the season with 54.4 seconds left in the game, but by then it was too little too late for the Cats.

Those final 54 seconds were ugly from a Panthers perspective, as the Capitals won the ensuing faceoff and never relinquished possession of the puck, putting on a master class on how to close out a win.

Credit also to Caps' netminder Logan Thompson, who played lights out during the final two frames. He finished with 27 saves, including stops on six of Florida's eight high danger shots, according to Natural Stat Trick. 

Also props to the elder Tkachuk brother, as Matthew picked up assists on all three of Florida's goals. 

He's now up to 25 points on the season, including nine assists over his past five games. 

On to Boston, for another day game on Sunday.

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Photo caption: Nov 7, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson (48) makes a save onFloridaPanthersdefenseman Uvis Balinskis (26) during the second period at Capital One Arena. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)