Caps Overcome Ducks and Adversity, 3-2

Tom Wilson scored two goals and Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves to earn his 18th win of the season on Wednesday night in Anaheim, helping the Caps shake off a onslaught of adversity in a 3-2 overtime win over the Ducks on Wednesday night at Honda Center.

Washington never trailed in the game, which ended when Wilson beat his man to the net and tucked a T.J. Oshie feed behind Ducks goalie John Gibson at 1:09 of the extra session.
"I just came back and got speed," recounts Wilson of the game-winner. "Osh was carrying the puck, and it seemed like their guys lost me, and I saw the seas part, so I figured I'd try and go to the net. Osh did a good job of getting around the guy, and I just tried to get whatever I could on it, and I think it went stick to feet to through [Gibson's] legs, but we'll take it."
Wednesday's game was the second game of a four-game road trip for the Capitals, who endured a persevered through a raft of events that were beyond their control to get back in the win column after a 7-4 loss to the Sabres in Buffalo in the trip opener on Sunday.
In between Sunday's setback in Buffalo and Wednesday's win, three Caps players - forwards Lars Eller and Marcus Johansson and defenseman Erik Gustafsson - were dealt away in three separate trades ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline. Blueliner Rasmus Sandin - the only NHL player obtained in those three trades - arrived in Anaheim on Tuesday night and skated with his new teammates on Wednesday morning, but he was unable to suit up against the Ducks because of visa issues.
During Wednesday's game against the Ducks, the Caps lost their top two remaining defensemen to injury; Nick Jensen left the game early in the first period with an upper body injury and Martin Fehervary departed in the third period with a lower body ailment.
The Caps collectively banded together and shook off all of those woes with Wednesday's win over the Ducks.
"It was good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I thought we came out the right way. It's been a different couple of days, and I like the way we came out and played at the beginning, and I liked the fact that we kept on battling through the game, even though we lost some defensemen. I thought some of our [defensemen] that jumped in there did a really good job.
"[Alex] Alexeyev had a really good game for us, really strong, and after not playing for a little bit, he came in and gave us good minutes, so that was really good, and it was nice that we could put it away in overtime."
Alexeyev had been parked in idle since Jan. 21 when he last played against the Golden Knights in Vegas, and was in the lineup because Sandin wasn't able to play. Playing in just his 14th career NHL game, the 23-year-old rookie logged a single-game career high of 25:08 in ice time, second to only Trevor van Riemsdyk's 25:57 among Caps' blueliners.
"It was unreal," says Alexeyev, of getting back in and making a significant contribution. "We have a really good team, we played really good, and we succeed."
A day after signing a three-year contract extension, Jensen suffered an upper body injury on his third shift of the night, sidelining him for the remainder of the evening. With the Caps down to five defensemen early - and missing their ostensible No. 1 blueliner from the current composition of the active roster - they soldiered on.
Washington took a 1-0 lead on a good offensive zone shift at 8:58 of the opening frame when Nicklas Backstrom made a nifty feed to Fehervary on the weak side, and the latter quickly snuck a shot past Gibson from the bottom of the left circle.
On the Fehervary goal, Caps defenseman Dylan McIlrath picked up the secondary helper, his first NHL point since Dec. 13, 2016 when he was with Florida.
The Caps dominated possession early, owning a 13-2 lead in shots on net past the midpoint of the initial period, but Anaheim pulled even on the board on a Troy Terry shot from the inside of the right circle at 13:01, and the Ducks held the Caps without a shot for the rest of the frame.
Washington resumed domination in the second, and continued doing so throughout the frame, outshooting the Ducks 17-4 in what was a scoreless middle stanza. Two Caps power plays produced five shots in the second, but Washington's best scoring opportunity of the period came when all three members of the Dylan Strome line got behind the Anaheim defense just over six minutes into the frame. Gibson quelled that uprising with an excellent right pad save on ex-teammate Sonny Milano from the top of the paint.
Eight seconds into the third, the Caps regained their lead when Wilson converted a sublime van Riemsdyk feed from the right half wall. Wilson's one-timer from the slot put the Caps up 2-1. With the primary assist on that goal, van Riemsdyk notched his 18th point (six goals, 12 assists) of the season, establishing a career high.
Less than a minute later, Gibson made a blocker save on Anthony Mantha's bid to put Washington up by a pair on a penalty shot.
When Fehervary was boxed for a holding the stick minor at 2:11 of the third, the Caps faced the Anaheim power play with both of their top defensive pair - Fehervary and Jensen - unavailable for the kill. The Caps successfully navigated those two minutes, only to lose the lead when Trevor Zegras tied the game at 2-2 six seconds after Fehervary's return. Zegras scored on the rebound of a Mason McTavish shot.
Fehervary's night ended a shift after he exited the penalty box, and he was unavailable for the remainder of the night, leaving the Caps with just four defensemen the rest of the way.
Washington was unable to regain the lead with a power play opportunity late in regulation, but when Dylan Strome outdueled brother Ryan on the opening face-off of overtime, it helped set the table for Dylan's first NHL victory over one of his brother's teams. The Caps held possession throughout the 69 seconds of overtime and won the game on the first and only shot of the extra session, enabling Dylan to get the upper hand over Ryan for the first time in their seven NHL meetings.
And the Caps pulled it off despite losing three good players to trades in a span of less than 24 hours, and then losing two top defensemen during the game.
"There was obviously a lot of emotions going into this game," says van Riemsdyk. "Obviously we've battled hard with some of the guys we've lost there, and it's always sad to see guys go. That's what happens when we're in this position that we're in right now, and it's definitely sad to see them go.
"But I thought we did a good job today of finding a way of sticking with it, and not letting a bad bounced when they tied it up in the third stop us from going. We kept it going and didn't look back, and I thought we deserved the outcome we got."