March 18 vs. Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome
Time: 8:30 p.m.
TV: MNMT, NHL Network
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (32-25-9)
Calgary Flames (32-29-5)
With a modest two-game winning streak in their pocket, the Caps move on to Calgary for the final stop of their five-game western road swing, a Monday night match against the Flames. The game not only concludes the trip, it’s the last game the Caps will play outside of their time zone this season.
The Caps’ journey started inauspiciously, with a pair of lopsided losses in Winnipeg and Edmonton, respectively. But Washington salvaged its trip with a pair of 2-1 victories in Seattle on Thursday, and in Vancouver on Saturday. Despite having been outscored by a combined 12-6 on this trip, the Caps find themselves all even on the journey as they head into Monday’s finale and rubber match.
Saturday’s win over the Canucks was particularly satisfying, given the caliber of the opposition and Vancouver’s excellent record (21-7-4) in its own building, plus the fact that T.J. Oshie was playing in his 1,000th career NHL game. The Canucks grabbed an early 1-0 lead on a Brock Boeser goal in the game’s first shift, but Caps’ goalie Charlie Lindgren shut the door tightly the rest of the way, stopping each of the final 21 shots he faced and recording his 17th victory of the season.
In the second period, the Caps took control of the contest, and they cobbled together a pair of goals less than two minutes apart in the middle of the middle frame, with Tom Wilson and Alex Ovechkin lighting the lamp; Oshie started Ovechkin’s scoring play. Lindgren made sure that was all the offense that was needed; half of his 22-shot workload came in the third period, when Washington’s skaters chipped in with 11 blocked shots, a shade more than half of their total of 20 on the night.
“You look at these games, and they’re meaningful hockey; they’re playoff type hockey for us,” says Wilson. “It’s great experience for everyone in the room. We’re rallying together here, we’re playing well, we’re playing for each other, and that’s what it’s all about this time of year. If we keep playing like that, we’ll give ourselves a good chance.”
Vancouver had 11 of its 22 shots on net in the third, but Washington held the Canucks without a shot on goal for a span of nearly 12 minutes in the middle frame.
“Not a lot of action,” says Lindgren of that second period. “Just got to stay in it, make sure I keep doing my routines and stay focused, because you never know when they’re going to get their next opportunity, their next chance. We did a really good job again, just taking care of the puck, not giving them odd man rushes, clearing the guys out of the front of the net. Again, one hell of an effort.”
Washington faces a daunting schedule the rest of the way, both in terms of playing a lot of games and in terms of caliber of the opposition. Among playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, no team will play more games (16) the rest of the way than Washington, which will play those games in a span of 30 days. And the Caps also have the fewest remaining games (five) against teams currently outside the playoff picture, as of Sunday morning. They know they’ve got to win a number of games against elite opponents, which makes Saturday’s triumph over the Canucks such a big one.
“It’s huge, it’s huge,” says Lindgren. “Obviously we know Vancouver is a really good hockey team, probably a top three team in the whole League. Coming into their building, it shows a lot of character again, just by all 20 guys. It’s just really amazing. We’ll feel good tonight, and then back at it in a couple of days in Calgary.”
The Flames are still on the outskirts of the playoff chase in the Western Conference. Like the Capitals, they’ve got 15 games remaining, but they’ve got to make up a six-point gap between themselves and eighth-place Vegas, and they don’t have any remaining games against the Golden Knights. Calgary must also claw its way past both St. Louis and Minnesota if it is to sneak into the postseason.
Since the two teams met for the first time back on Oct. 16 in Washington, Calgary has dealt away center Elias Lindholm and defensemen Nikita Zadorov, Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev. With goaltender Jacob Markstrom sidelined with a lower body injury, rookie Dustin Wolf has started and won each of the last two games for Calgary. After the Flames dropped the opener of their four-game homestand to Colorado, Wolf prevailed over Vegas and Montreal, yielding a combined total of three goals in the two victories.
The 22-year-old Wolf was a seventh-round choice (214th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft. He made one start last season for the Flames, picking up the win. Wolf is 97-31-9 at the AHL level and clearly has nothing more to prove in that League.
