Game

Stars at Capitals

Stars 4, Capitals 1 · first star Sam Steel (1 G, 1 A).

2025-26 regular season · Preseason. The 2026-27 regular season starts Sep 29. Data as of September 28, 2026, source NHL.

Dallas Stars 4 at Washington Capitals 1

Stars DAL

4 FINAL 1

Capitals WSH

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · Capital One Arena, Washington · TV TNT · HBO MAX

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Stars	1	1	2	4	36
Capitals	0	0	1	1	24

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Stars attack left, Capitals attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so the 6 marks in a team's own end are attempts logged from there: empty-net shots, long dumps on the net; 1 empty-net goal is drawn as a diamond. Boxscore shots on goal: DAL 36, WSH 24.

DAL in red WSH in blue goal empty-net goal shot on goal missed blocked Stars 36 shots on goal (4 goals, 11 missed, 19 blocked) attacking left; Capitals 24 shots on goal (1 goal, 12 missed, 11 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	DAL SOG	DAL G	DAL ATT	WSH SOG	WSH G	WSH ATT
1st	10	1	19	6	0	17
2nd	10	1	21	5	0	10
3rd	16	2	26	13	1	20
Total	36	4	66	24	1	47

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	DAL SOG	DAL G	WSH SOG	WSH G
Even strength	26	3	24	1
Power play	7	0	0	0
Short-handed	3	1	0	0
Into an empty net	1	1	0	0

Attempt share by period

Stars took 58.4% of the shot attempts, and 55.6% of the 81 attempts taken at 5-on-5. An attempt is a goal, a shot on goal, a miss or a blocked shot; CF% is the share of them belonging to the Capitals and FF% their share of the ones that were not blocked, so the Stars hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Stars at Capitals
Period	WSH CF%	WSH FF%
1st	47.2	54.2
2nd	32.3	33.3
3rd	43.5	42.9
Game	41.6	43.4

Team totals only: per-player on-ice numbers need shift data, which this source does not publish.

Scoring summary

1st period

03:06 Radek Faksa (2) SH Esa Lindell (14) · wrist 1–0

2nd period

02:37 Sam Steel (7) Thomas Harley (14), Matt Duchene (6) · tip-in 2–0

3rd period

13:31 Wyatt Johnston (24) Sam Steel (9) · snap 3–0
17:41 Alex Ovechkin (18) John Carlson (23), Jakob Chychrun (17) · snap 3–1
19:41 Roope Hintz (13) EN Unassisted · snap 4–1

Three stars

Sam Steel DAL · C #18 · 1 G, 1 A
Casey DeSmith DAL · G #1 · 0 GA, .958 SV%
Wyatt Johnston DAL · C #53 · 1 G, 0 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	02:44	DAL	Ilya Lyubushkin	holding	2	Jakob Chychrun
1st	03:16	WSH	Connor McMichael	abuse of officials	2	—
2nd	01:12	DAL	Ilya Lyubushkin	roughing	2	Brandon Duhaime
2nd	01:12	WSH	Brandon Duhaime	roughing	2	Ilya Lyubushkin
2nd	12:53	DAL	Ilya Lyubushkin	fighting (major)	5	Brandon Duhaime
2nd	12:53	WSH	Brandon Duhaime	fighting (major)	5	Ilya Lyubushkin
2nd	15:55	DAL	Mikko Rantanen	slashing	2	Justin Sourdif
3rd	04:57	WSH	Nic Dowd	hooking	2	Jason Robertson

Boxscore

Dallas Stars

Stars skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Sam Steel #18	C	1	1	2	+1	1	0	0	0	22.2	18:16
Radek Faksa #12	C	1	0	1	+1	3	0	0	0	33.3	10:47
Roope Hintz #24	C	1	0	1	+1	12	1	0	0	40.0	17:13
Wyatt Johnston #53	C	1	0	1	0	5	0	1	0	61.5	21:49
Matt Duchene #95	C	0	1	1	+1	2	1	0	0	62.5	13:40
Esa Lindell #23	D	0	1	1	+1	0	0	3	0	0.0	26:49
Thomas Harley #55	D	0	1	1	+1	2	3	2	0	0.0	22:11
Colin Blackwell #15	C	0	0	0	+1	2	2	0	0	100.0	11:18
Justin Hryckowian #49	C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	10:36
Mavrik Bourque #22	C	0	0	0	+1	0	0	0	0	0.0	14:36
Oskar Bäck #10	C	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.0	10:19
Jason Robertson #21	L	0	0	0	+1	1	0	1	0	0.0	18:08
Mikko Rantanen #96	R	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	0.0	20:37
Nathan Bastian #11	R	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0.0	08:35
Ilya Lyubushkin #46	D	0	0	0	+1	1	2	0	9	0.0	15:14
Kyle Capobianco #20	D	0	0	0	+1	0	1	1	0	0.0	10:14
Miro Heiskanen #4	D	0	0	0	+1	1	1	3	0	0.0	28:02
Nils Lundkvist #5	D	0	0	0	+1	4	2	0	0	0.0	15:36

Stars goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Casey DeSmith #1	W	24	23	1	.958	23/24	0/0	60:00

Washington Capitals

Capitals skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Alex Ovechkin #8	L	1	0	1	-2	2	1	1	0	0.0	19:43
Jakob Chychrun #6	D	0	1	1	-1	6	1	1	0	0.0	24:30
John Carlson #74	D	0	1	1	-2	0	1	1	0	0.0	27:37
Dylan Strome #17	C	0	0	0	-2	2	1	0	0	66.7	20:50
Hendrix Lapierre #29	C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	06:53
Justin Sourdif #34	C	0	0	0	-1	2	0	0	0	36.4	19:45
Nic Dowd #26	C	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	2	57.1	12:55
Brandon Duhaime #22	L	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	7	0.0	08:09
Connor McMichael #24	L	0	0	0	-1	3	1	1	2	62.5	20:40
Sonny Milano #15	L	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	07:59
Anthony Beauvillier #72	R	0	0	0	-1	3	1	0	0	0.0	17:45
Brett Leason #20	R	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	100.0	05:34
Ethen Frank #53	R	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	0.0	13:44
Ryan Leonard #9	R	0	0	0	-1	2	1	0	0	0.0	22:07
Dylan McIlrath #52	D	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0.0	06:08
Martin Fehérváry #42	D	0	0	0	-1	0	2	4	0	0.0	18:31
Matt Roy #3	D	0	0	0	-1	0	5	0	0	0.0	21:49
Rasmus Sandin #38	D	0	0	0	-1	1	1	2	0	0.0	21:19

Capitals goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Logan Thompson #48	L	35	32	3	.914	23/25	7/7	58:02

SOG shots on goal · BLK blocked shots · FO% faceoff win percentage · EV / PP saves over shots by strength. Skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Source NHL (boxscore, play-by-play, game summary). Shot locations are the league's tracked coordinates; the chart and the situation tables are computed by Play-Pause Hockey. Data as of 2026-09-28.