{"id":185168,"date":"2025-09-27T11:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185168\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:17:11","slug":"andrew-cristall-praised-by-spencer-carbery-after-scoring-in-first-preseason-outing-its-another-good-game-for-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185168\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Cristall praised by Spencer Carbery after scoring in first preseason outing: \u2018It\u2019s another good game for him\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

HERSHEY, PA \u2014 Andrew Cristall nearly made the Washington Capitals<\/a> out of training camp last season. A year later, he immediately put himself back on Spencer Carbery\u2019s radar in his first preseason appearance of 2025.<\/p>\n

Suiting up in his first ever game at Giant Center, Cristall scored the Capitals\u2019 first goal of the night and made his case for a full-time NHL roster spot.<\/p>\n

While on a first-period power play, Cristall took a pass at that point and skated the puck deep into offensive zone before dishing to Hendrix Lapierre along the goal line. The move pushed a Flyers penalty killer too deep into his coverage, allowing Cristall to set up shop wide open at the top of the left circle. After getting the puck back, the 2023 second-round pick made no mistake beating Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar short side to the top corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we had a great entry,\u201d Cristall said postgame. \u201cI think Miro brought it in there, and Chiz (Declan Chisholm) found me on the left side, and then I did a little give-and-go with Lap (Hendrix Lapierre). I kind of knew he was going to feed me back and get the screen in front, so I tried to get it up and over the blocker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cristall wasn\u2019t planning to celebrate but the sold out crowd at Giant Center got him going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unbelievable,\u201d he said of the atmosphere. \u201cI was saying it\u2019s only preseason, but after that first goal, I wasn\u2019t planning on cellying, but it was a big roar, so I thought I\u2019d give them something. It was pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cristall skated on the left side of the second line with Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas, who both had big games as well. McMichael scored a shorthanded goal, while Protas led the team with six shots on goal. Cristall finished the evening tied with Ivan Miroshnichenko for rubber put on net with three.<\/p>\n

\u201c(He) makes a big play on the power play right away, gives us a lead,\u201d Carbery said of Cristall postgame. \u201cHe showed again what we saw last year. He does things that positively impact the game. And however it looks, he\u2019s just creative. He finds space. He\u2019s right place, right time. It\u2019s another good game for him or a good start to his preseason games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cristall comes into Capitals camp after a ridiculous junior season where he led the entire WHL in points \u2014 132 (48g, 84a) in 57 regular season games \u2014 while splitting the season between the Kelowna Rockets and Spokane Chiefs. He later posted 41 points (21g, 20a) in 19 playoff games for the Chiefs. The 20-year-old prospect will play his first professional season either with the Capitals of the AHL\u2019s Hershey Bears.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver native joins a crowded and intense competition for open Capitals\u2019 roster spots at forward \u2014 a battle that includes Hendrix Lapierre, Sonny Milano, Justin Sourdif, Ethen Frank, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and Bogdan Trineyev.<\/p>\n

Milano and Lapierre\u2019s performances early in the preseason have been some of the NHL\u2019s best. Milano (4g, 2a) and Lapierre (1g, 5a) recorded 6 points in their first 2 games while Miroshnichenko and Trineyev have both scored goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d Cristall said. \u201cI think everyone wants everyone to have success, and everyone is kind of firing on all cylinders. I mean, whether it\u2019s a goal or something little like chipping a puck out, I think the little things matter a little bit more, but I\u2019m happy to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

While such a difficult decision might cause anxiety for some head coaches, Carbery loves how much players are stepping up to try and claim their spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys that are fighting for spots are playing at a real high level,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cAnd as a coach, as an organization, that\u2019s what you want to see. They\u2019re prepared. They\u2019re ready for this moment. They want to earn a spot on this team. And, and they\u2019re going and showing that out on the ice right now. And that\u2019s, yeah, you just go down the list of the guys that are, that are fighting for their role on this team, they\u2019re playing at a real high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got four games to go, but there\u2019s going to be some really, really difficult decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Cristall hopes to be one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HERSHEY, PA \u2014 Andrew Cristall nearly made the Washington Capitals out of training camp last season. A year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-185168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}