In a game pitting a pair of goaltenders going up against their former employers, Washington’s Logan Thompson prevailed on Sunday night in Vegas. Thompson made 40 saves – including 25 in the third period – to bite the hand that once fed him for the second time in the young season. Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin single-handedly supplied the difference in Washington’s 5-2 victory, scoring once in each period to record the 31st hat trick of his NHL career, and his first since Dec. 31, 2022.
Sunday’s victory was the Caps’ first-ever in the regular season at T-Mobile Arena, and it came in their seventh visit here (1-5-1). The Capitals have also strung together consecutive victories for the first time in November.
“I thought he was outstanding,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery his goaltender, who improved to 8-0-1 on the season in outdueling ex-Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov. “I’m just proud of him for the way he battled tonight. The tribute video – in the time that he was here, you can tell how much he meant to the fans, and to the organization as a whole. And it is reciprocated; you can see how much this organization means to Logan, and for him to get his start in the NHL here.
“It was first class, that video tribute to Logan. I’m just happy for him and proud of him, go beat his former team twice and play the way he did tonight, and grind through that and battle, and arguably be the difference in the second half of that game.”
Washington jumped out to a 1-0 lead on an Ovechkin power-play goal. John Carlson teed up the Caps’ captain in his left dot office, but rather than crank one of his patented one-timers, Ovechkin swept a shot toward the net and it bounded off Vegas defender Alex Pietrangelo and in at 5:59 of the first frame.
The goal was Washington’s fourth on the power play in its last extra-man opportunities over a span of four games, dating back to last Saturday night in St. Louis. And in victimizing former teammate Ilya Samsonov for the first time, Ovechkin has now scored off 177 different NHL netminders, tied with Patrick Marleau for second on the League’s all-time list, and trailing only Jaromir Jagr (178).
In the back half of the first, the Caps doubled their lead. Dylan Strome made an excellent defensive play at the Vegas line, picking the pocket of Vegas winger Alexander Holtz as he tried to exit the zone. Strome regained the zone and found Jakob Chychrun gliding back into Vegas ice, and the latter netted his fifth of the season – and third in the last four games – to make it a 2-0 game at 12:26.
Washington wasn’t able to take that two-goal cushion to the room, however. With less than 10 seconds remaining in the first, Vegas cut the Caps’ lead in half when Brett Howden scored on a favorable bounce off the back wall at 19:52. Howden’s goal came on the first Vegas shot on net in over eight minutes.
The Golden Knights came out with plenty of verve in the early minutes of the middle frame; they were on the hunt for the equalizer and peppering Thompson with pucks. Vegas put four shots on net in the first minute of the second.
The Caps took some starch out of the Golden Knights when they quickly restored their two-goal cushion. Rasmus Sandin carried into Vegas ice and put the puck behind the cage for Aliaksei Protas, who fed Jakub Vrana in the right circle. Vrana fired and scored from there, making it a 3-1 game at 2:49 of the middle frame.
Vegas again pulled to within a goal of Washington when Keegan Kolesar scored on a delayed penalty at 7:24.
Ovechkin put three pucks on the board for the Caps on Sunday, but he flashed some diligent defense about a minute after the Kolasar goal when he stripped Vegas’ Ivan Barbashev from behind, preventing a certain tying tally.
“That happened so quick,” says Ovechkin. “I think he didn’t even knew the puck goes through, and I was kind of surprised. Luck was on our side at that moment.”
Luck, but also backchecking.
As was the case on the Chychrun goal in the first, Washington was able to again create some offense from good defense late in the second. Matt Roy made a good read to pick off a Jack Eichel pass in Washington ice, and he sent Ovechkin into the Vegas zone. From the right dot, Ovechkin ripped a shot past Samsonov to make it a 4-2 contest at 17:38.
The last two-plus minutes of the second period was some of the Caps’ best hockey of the afternoon; they controlled play in the Vegas end for the remainder of the frame after Ovechkin’s second goal, determined to carry that two-goal advantage into the third against the Golden Knights, whose seven comeback wins are the most in the NHL this season.
And given the way things went in the third, with Vegas pumping 25 shots on Thompson, keeping the Golden Knights from bagging another late goal in the second was critical. So was the play of Thompson, obviously. He made stellar stops on Hertl and Eichel in the third, just to name a couple. Several times he had Vegas players looking up at the rafters in frustration at having been denied.
“I think we had 80-some attempts, so it’s not like we didn’t try to get the puck to the net,” says Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy. “We just made a few mistakes with it when we could have gotten it there, and earlier in the game maybe, that resulted in us digging it out of our nets. So a lesson to be learned there.”
Thompson’s tribute video came after the first television timeout in the first period, which was – coincidentally – when Vegas was about to go on its first power play of the night. The Caps were able to keep the lethal Golden Knights power play off the board, mainly by staying out of the box. Vegas has scored on the power play in 13 of 18 games this year, failing to do so only when limited to two or fewer opportunities. The Caps held them to just one, though Vegas did get the Kolsear goal on a delayed penalty.
“You forget how many good memories you have here, and how much I loved it here,” says Thompson of the tribute video. “Everything. The city meant a lot to me, and I loved playing in front of the fans. I didn’t make life easy when I was here sometimes. But credit to the guys that were here with me, or here before that are no longer here, they really helped me. I really needed a fresh start, but I couldn’t be more happy with my time as a Golden Knight.”
