Caps Unleash Flurry of Goals in 6-3 Win Over Isles

For the first half of Thursday's game against the New York Islanders at Capital One Arena, it didn't look like the home team's night. It wasn't that Washington played terribly over the course of that period and a half, but the Caps weren't sharp and they entered the second facing a 3-0 deficit, their first multi-goal hole of the season.

But it turned on a dime midway through the second, and it stayed turned. Washington poured five pucks into the New York net in a span of 9:07 of the middle frame, taking control of the contest. Tom Wilson's late empty-netter made it a six-pack of unanswered strikes, and the result was a 6-3 Washington win. With the victory, the Caps established a franchise record with eight straight games (5-0-3) with a point to start the season. The 2011-12 Caps opened up 7-0-0.

"The first period wasn't perfect," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We knew the Islanders were going to have a little bit more jump. They got a fortunate bounce on the first goal and that kind of set us on our heels.
"We just talked about winning the second period and getting back to our game. I thought we really played well in the second period, just played hard and turned up the heat a little bit, stayed in the offensive zone a little bit more. And then in the third period, I just thought we played good defense."
New York came to town on the heels of a whitewashing at the hands of the Devils in New Jersey. The Isles were half a minute away from earning a point in Tuesday's 3-2 loss to Washington, and they squandered a 3-0 lead in Thursday's rematch, leaving town empty-handed and lugging a three-game losing streak with them to Philadelphia, where they face a set of back-to-backs against the Flyers on Saturday and Sunday.
"They found a way to get it done today," says Isles coach Barry Trotz of the Capitals. "They showed lots of character coming back. We're going to have to regroup. This is a punch to the mouth and an uppercut to the jaw, and you've just got to pick yourself up off the floor."
The trouble started in the middle of the first period for Washington, and by the end of the frame the Caps were looking up at their biggest scoreboard deficit of the young season.
Ten seconds before the midpoint of the first, Oliver Wahlstrom notched a pinball goal off a J-G Pageau feed, bouncing a shot off a pair of Caps to put his team up 1-0. It was Wahlstrom's first NHL goal.
Eighteen seconds later, the Isles doubled their lead and put the Caps down by more than a goal for the first time in the 2020-21 season. Cal Clutterbuck carried out of a cluster of players in front of the Caps net and curled his way to center point. From there, he sent a shot/pass toward the net where Casey Cizikas was able to easily re-direct it behind Vitek Vanecek for a 2-0 New York advantage.
The Islanders went up by three goals on a power play late in the frame, taking a 3-0 lead when New York captain Anders Lee - playing in his 500th NHL game - bagged the rebound of a Mathew Barzal shot at 17:39.
The second has been a problematic period for the Caps this season, and Thursday night's middle frame started with the home team looking a little sluggish, perhaps a little hangover from their flawed first frame.
That's when the Caps unleashed the flurry of goals, five of them on 11 shots in a span of 9:23 in the middle period.
Conor Sheary netted each of the first two, putting the rebound of a John Carlson point shot behind Semyon Varlamov at 9:07 of the period. On his next shift, Sheary scored again. This time, he deftly deflected a Zdeno Chara left point shot past the Isles goaltender at 10:20 for his second goal in a span of 63 seconds, making the Islanders pay for an unnecessary icing and making it a 3-2 game.
Less than a minute later, Garnet Hathaway tied it with a rush goal, a shot that bounded in off Varlamov's body at 11:11, triggering an Islanders timeout call. It didn't help.

Wahlstrom went off for hooking at 12:56, giving the Caps their first full power play opportunity of the evening. A hundred seconds later, Carlson - temping in Alex Ovechkin's left dot office - blasted a one-timer home from there, converting a sublime Justin Schultz feed. That was the Caps' fourth goal in a span of just 5:09, and it gave them a lead they would not relinquish.
Washington continued dominating the Islanders in their own end, putting together a pair of offensive-zone shifts that culminated in Chara's first goal as a Capital, on a drive from the left point at 18:30. He was near the Caps bench when he scored, and he was instantly mauled by his new teammates in a show of affection and reverence for the future Hall of Famer.
"It felt great," says Chara of getting mobbed. "I love this group of guys. They really made that whole transition and adjustment for me much easier than I even expected, and I obviously couldn't be happier to share that enjoyment with the whole bench and the whole team. It's a great feeling."
The lone down spot of the game for Washington occurred in the first minute of the third when Schultz - who notched his third straight multi-point game on Thursday - caught a Kiefer Bellows shot up high and went off immediately for repairs. Schultz did not return.
"I think he is still being evaluated," says Laviolette. "From a safety standpoint, just so you know, he is okay. But there was some damage done obviously with the puck."

Although the Caps' only shot on net in the third was Wilson's empty-netter with 18.7 seconds left, and although they were out-attempted 23-4 in the third, Washington did not sit back in the final frame. The Caps routinely put pucks deep, went in and forechecked, and passed the puck around New York ice until it was time for a shift change.
Then it was lather, rinse, repeat the rest of the way.
"I thought the third period was really smart," says Laviolette. "You've got to do different things inside the game. The first period wasn't good; we wanted it to be different, better. Second period was really good, third period was really smart."