POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 3, Isles 1

Given the Caps' recent scheduling and lineup adversity, there was also a bit more than meets the eye to Tuesday's triumph. Washington played for the second time in as many nights - its first set of back-to-backs that involved travel thus far this season - and it just finished a stretch of eight of nine games on the road. While the Caps were in Buffalo facing the Sabres on Monday night, the Isles were in their Washington hotel resting.
Tuesday's game was the fourth straight game in which the Caps played most or all of the night with only 11 forwards, and it was the sixth straight game in which Washington was without the services of top six winger Tom Wilson.
But despite a slow start out of the gates in Tuesday's contest, the Caps managed to sweep a set of back-to-back games for the third time in four sets this season. Ilya Samsonov was stellar in the net in the first period, giving the Caps a chance to get their legs. With two goals in the second and another in the first half-minute of the third, Washington generated just enough offense to prevail over the stingy Islanders.
"We understand the schedule," says Caps defenseman Brenden Dillon. "From [coach Peter Laviolette] on down, you could use it as an excuse. We've got guys out, banged up, whatever the case might be, but we understood the importance of this one. First place was up for grabs; [we were playing] a good team, a team that's been rolling pretty good.
"We knew it was going to be a good test for us and they came out hard. We found our legs and were able to defend hard, and obviously Sammy played great and gave us a good chance. And we won the special teams battle, which at the end of the day it's going to come down to in those tight games like tonight."
The Islanders don't take many penalties; they entered Tuesday's game as the third least penalized team in the NHL with an average of just 2.43 times shorthanded per game. But the Isles took three completely unnecessary penalties in the second period alone, and the Caps made them pay for two of those transgressions with power-play goals.
With Mat Barzal in the box for cross-checking Nick Jensen in the offensive zone, Ovechkin scored a power-play late in the second, a tally that proved to be the game-winner. When Scott Mayfield took exception to a hit from Richard Panik in the waning seconds of the second period, he tried to fight the Washington winger, throwing a punch at him and picking up a roughing minor in the process, all after the whistle and the horn to signal the end of the second period.
On a fresh sheet of ice to start the third period, Jakub Vrana slipped a perfect feed to Backstrom at the back door, a mere 28 seconds into the third period.
Tuesday's game marked the first time the Caps had multiple power-play goals in the same game since Feb. 21 when they scored three of them in a 4-3 win over New Jersey. They were 3-for-24 (12.5 percent) with the extra man between those two games, but still managed a 9-1-1 record during that stretch.
Washington is the only team to dent the Islanders for multiple power-play goals in the same game this season. In addition to Tuesday's pair of extra-man tallies, the Caps struck twice on the power play against New York in a 6-3 win over the Islanders in the District on Jan. 28.
Multiple Milestones - Ovechkin clicked off a pair of milestones in the same game on Tuesday night, recording his 1,300th career point with a secondary assist on T.J. Oshie's second-period goal and surpassing Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito (717) with his power-play goal later in the middle frame, the 718th goal of his career.
On Monday night in Buffalo, Ovechkin netted goal No. 717 to pull even with Esposito. This was the 46th time in Ovechkin's career that he scored a goal on consecutive days, accounting for 130 of his 718 career tallies in those 92 games. Ovechkin required the second-fewest games to reach 718 career goals, doing so in his 1,177th career game. Only Wayne Gretzky (925 games) got there faster.
Ovechkin's power-play goal on Tuesday was the 264th extra-man tally of his career, putting him just one behind Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull (265) for second place in that department. Hockey Hall of Famer Dave Andreychuk (274) occupies the top spot on that list.
And finally, Ovechkin's goal on Tuesday was also the 114th game-winning goal of his NHL career. That moves him to within four of Esposito (118) for third place on the all-time list in that category. Jaromir Jagr is the League's all-time leader with 135 career game-winning goals.
Next up on Ovechkin's ongoing hit parade is Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne, who finished his 18-year NHL career with 731 goals in 1988-89.
St. Nick - Backstrom had a goal and an assist to continue his torrid season; he leads the team in scoring and is tied for ninth in the NHL. The two-point night pushed Backstrom's career total to 960 points, tied with Henrik Zetterberg for the sixth most points by a Swedish NHLer in League history.
The five Swedes ahead of Backstrom on that list are Mats Sundin (1,349), Daniel Alfredsson (1,157), Nicklas Lidstrom (1,142), Henrik Sedin (1,070) and Daniel Sedin (1,041).
Stop To Start - After missing six weeks while on the COVID protocol list, Ilya Samsonov returned to the net for the first time on Feb. 28 in an afternoon game against the Devils in New Jersey. Samsonov looked a little wobbly early in that contest, but he settled in and warmed to the task as the game wore on. He followed the same pattern in his next start a week later against the Flyers in Philadelphia.
On Tuesday night against the Islanders, Samsonov finally made his first start - and first appearance - of the season at home, and it was likely his sharpest overall performance of the season. No longer dogged by conditioning or stamina issues, Samsonov stopped all 11 shots he faced in the first, and the Caps cleared away any residual loose change in front. By night's end, Samsonov was only an Oliver Wahlstrom power-play goal away from a shutout in a 3-1 Washington win.
"Yeah, I feel much better right now and I thank the team," says Samsonov. "We played unbelievable today, so thank you for everybody."
With Tuesday's win over the Islanders, Samsonov improves to 6-0-1 on the season despite his road-heavy workload to date. Since returning from the COVID list late last month, Samsonov is 5-0-0 with a 2.22 GAA and a .921 save pct. That covers six appearances, and five starts.
"He's the man," says Dillon of Samsonov. "He is playing well, and every game he seems to be getting better and better, and that's a great sign for us as a team. I think from the forwards back to the defensemen, we're doing our best whether that's blocking out or clearing pucks.
"Teams have good players. They're going to get opportunities. I think when we are able to get the first save and the [defensemen] are able to clear it or blocks shots - whatever it might be - just a good team effort tonight defensively."
By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Caps with 21:50 in ice time … Carlson, Garnet Hathaway and Evgeny Kuznetsov led the Caps with three shots on net each … Ovechkin led the Caps with eight shot attempts … Ovechkin and Nic Dowd led the Caps with four hits each … Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with six blocked shots.