Another game, another sluggish start, another Capitals victory, and another Alex Ovechkin goal, No. 886. That’s the one-sentence descriptor of Sunday afternoon’s 4-2 triumph over Seattle at Capital One Arena. Sunday’s victory sends to the Caps out west for a three-game tour of California, and with a four-game winning streak in tow.
Connor McMichael’s tip-in tally on John Carlson’s precision shot/pass snapped a 2-2 tie with 4:16 remaining in the third period. That goal stands up as the game-winner, and it also set the stage for Ovechkin’s latest lamplighter, an empty-net strike with 1:29 left. With that goal, Ovechkin also became the 11th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 career points, and the seventh to do so with a single team.
Kudos are also due for Charlie Lindgren (30 saves) – who won for the fourth time in five starts – and the Caps’ penalty killing outfit, which was perfect on four missions, including three of them while the game was knotted at 2-2.
Sunday’s game was filled with post-whistle scrums and irascibility, and early in the third, one of those post-whistle conflagrations led to all five skaters on both sides being boxed for various hockey crimes.
“Our penalty kill deserves a ton of credit tonight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. Because there were various points in that game where it was tied, where we had to kill, I think there were three kills at 2-2. Those are momentum changing big moments in the hockey game. And the penalty kill stepped up big time. [The scrum provided] energy in the building, and you always love when our guys stick up for one another, so it was good.”
For the second straight game, the Caps were mediocre – at best – in the opening frame on Sunday afternoon. Fortunately for the Caps, Lindgren was dialed in from puck drop. The Caps needed Lindgren to make a number of key stops throughout the game, but particularly in the first 20 minutes, when he made 13 of his 30 stops. Most notably in the first frame was a stop on Kraken captain Jordan Eberle from the top of the paint.
The Caps also got a clutch crease-sweep from Matt Roy and a spotless penalty kill in the first.
Seattle was able to grab the game’s first lead however; the Kraken went up 1-0 at 12:37 when ex-Cap Andre Burakovsky made an excellent feed to set up a Shane Wright goal off the rush.
The Caps found their footing early in the second, squaring the score in the first minute of the middle frame and jumping in front soon after.
Washington forced a turnover high in its own zone, and it broke the puck out on a 3-on-2 rush with Aliaksei Protas carrying down the right side. Protas gained the zone, then issued a sublime drop feed for the late guy, Martin Fehervary. From the left dot, Fehervary fired a shot past Joey Daccord just 35 seconds into the middle period, making it a 1-1 game.
Just over two minutes later, the Caps grabbed the lead when Dylan Strome – playing in his 500th career NHL game – fired a precise shot from center point through a maze of bodies and into the top right corner of the cage. Strome’s goal made it 2-1 for the Caps at 2:51.
“It was cool,” says Strome of netting a go-ahead goal in a milestone game. “[Andrew Mangiapane] did a great job of screening; [Rasmus Sandin] had a great play where he took it down low and then kind of found me back up high.
“I just tried to get it past the first guy. And yeah, it's always nice to help out and contribute, and a pretty cool milestone. I’m very thankful I've had a lot of great people around me through 500 games and hopefully a lot more. I'm very thankful, thankful to be here.”
The lead lasted a little less than five minutes; that’s when Seattle pulled even in transition. Another ex-Cap from the 2018 Stanley Cup championship team – Chandler Stephenson – made a slick feed to set up Eberle for the tying goal at 7:23.
Lindgren and the Caps’ penalty killing outfit kept the game tight thereafter, and it remained even until McMichael got to the net and prominently presented his stick. Carlson put it right on the tape, and McMichael netted the go-ahead goal, minutes after ringing the crossbar behind Daccord.
“it was really nice,” says McMichael, whose game-winner was his 50th career goal; he reached the 100-point plateau earlier in the game. “I mean, anytime you hit the bar like that, you're an inch away from making something happen, so it was nice to get rewarded with one in front there. And it was a great play by Johnny to find me.”
Seattle was finishing a sneakily compact three-game road trip and a set of back-to-backs on Sunday. It started the trip with a Thursday night game in Nashville, so Sunday’s matinee was its third game in less than 72 hours.
Given those circumstances, the Kraken deserves credit for keeping its legs throughout the full 60 on Sunday.
“The fight and compete in the match,” says Kraken coach Dan Bylsma of what pleased him most in his team’s Sunday performance. “A real good first [period] before dipping early in the second, but it was a 60-minute fight and compete, and you saw it all over the ice. You saw it defensively and you saw it offensively. It was a contested match, and it was a good one from our group; I’m just disappointed it wasn’t enough.”
