Washington’s 3-2 win over Nashville on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena was significant for a number of reasons. First, the victory is the 1,000th in the quarter century of Ted Leonsis’ majority ownership of the team. Second, the Caps have now won seven straight home games, their longest home winning streak since the back half of the 2017-18 season, six and a half years ago.
Before Wednesday’s game, the Caps honored their AHL Hershey affiliate for its two consecutive Calder Cup championships, the 12th and 13th Cup titles in Hershey’s storied franchise history, and the fourth and fifth titles achieved during the current affiliation between the two clubs, a span of just under 20 years.
Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal at 10:25 of the third period. Ovechkin has scored in five straight games, tallying six goals during that spree. With 861 career tallies, he is now 34 lamplighters shy of surpassing Wayne Gretzky (894) for the top spot on the NHL’s all-time goal scoring ledger.
Ovechkin wasn’t the only Capital who stayed hot; Connor McMichael scored for the fifth consecutive home game – he has seven goals during that stretch – and Aliaksei Protas notched a goal in his fourth straight home game. And goaltender Logan Thompson won his sixth straight start, joining Tomas Vokoun as just the second Washington netminder to start his career with six straight wins in as many decisions.
“You could feel through that game, the desperation in their group,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of the Preds, who are trying to claw their way out of an 0-5-0 start to the season. “I thought that was a good hockey game. They played well I thought, and they gave us a lot of issues.”
Wednesday’s game pitted a pair of teams desperately seeking to rebound from losses in their previous outings, and it looked like a junkyard dogfight from start to finish. All five goals came from right around the net, each team finished the night with 34 hits, and the two teams combined to block 39 shots.
“I think it was a dogfight for sure,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome, who had a multi-assist game for the fifth time this season, and for the fourth straight home game. “You saw what their GM said before the game; we knew they were going to be a desperate team. They spent a lot of money on July 1, and they’ve got some really good players on that team. They’re working really hard, and they’re obviously just not getting the bounces right now. They have a really talented team, and I thought they had some great chances tonight; they hit I don’t know how many posts – three or four – and had a goal called back.”
Two nights after they were blanked on just 16 shots by Los Angeles – and a day after Nashville GM Barry Trotz called out his club for its lackluster start to the season – the Preds jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on the Caps.
Juuso Parssinen scored on a drive-by deflection of a Luke Evangelista shot from the point at 3:19 of the first period. Initially, it looked as though Parssinen’s stick might have been too high when he made the deflection, but he lowered it just before contact, and the Caps chose not to challenge.
Washington has made a good early season habit of scoring soon after the opposition, and it did so again on Wednesday. A mere 74 seconds after the Preds took the lead, the Caps pulled even when McMichael notched his eighth goal of the season on the rebound of a Matt Roy drive from the right point. Roy, playing for the first time since suffering a lower body injury in Washington’s opening night game against New Jersey on Oct. 12, picked up his first point as a Capital on McMichael’s goal at 4:26.
Time and space were at a premium for both teams; both were around the net in the offensive zone, but both paid the price to be there. Washington spent more than four minutes with the extra man in the first, but their scuffling power play wasn’t able to do anything against Nashville’s second ranked penalty killing outfit.
The second period was played almost exclusively at 5-on-5, but it featured more of the same; tight-checking, hard-nosed hockey with strong goaltending and staunch defense at both ends.
Late in the middle period, the caps finally broke through and grabbed a 2-1 lead on an offensive zone shift. Strome won a loose puck along the right wing wall, quickly feeding Ovechkin in the slot. The captain put it back down low for Protas, who was able to get to the net ahead of the defense. Protas tucked a shot home to give Washington the lead for the first time.
“That's great work without the puck from all five guys,” says Protas of his goal. “And you can see we're getting that connection; we're all together without each other, and we had the support from each other down low, and that's great puck movement. It leads us to a great chance and a great goal.”
Unfortunately for the Caps, the lead would prove to be short-lived.
On the very next shift, Nashville squared the score. Following a couple of quick, sharp passes, Alexandre Carrier put a shot toward the net, and Steven Stamkos intervened with a successful tip to the shelf, tying the game at 15:34, just 31 seconds after the Protas goal.
Nashville put the full court press on in the third, and the Caps needed Thompson to come up large a few times in the final frame. A couple of minutes after Thompson sealed the right post to deny veteran pivot Ryan O’Reilly, the Caps got a puck deep and mustered a forecheck that paid off with the game-winner.
Strome corralled the puck and surveyed from behind the Nashville net, finding and feeding Ovechkin at the very bottom of the right circle. The captain whipped a shot past Saros to the far side to put the Caps up by a goal. From 20 feet away, it was from twice – or more – the distance of any of the four goals that came before it on this night.
“I’m always having fun,” says Ovechkin of his scoring spree. “When you’re winning games, when you produce some opportunities to have a chance to score goals, it’s always fun to play.”
Strome’s assist was the 200th of his NHL career.
“Sure, it’s a nice number,” he says. “It’s nice to get some individual accolades.”
He’s deserving of them; Strome has collected a point in 11 of Washington’s 12 games this season.
Less than two minutes after Ovechkin’s goal, the Preds appeared to have evened the score on a goalmouth scramble, but officials ruled that Nashville defenseman Mark Del Gaizo was guilty of goaltender interference. Preds coach Andrew Brunette opted to challenge the call, but the Caps prevailed.
“I think I was pretty confident,” says Thompson of the lengthy review. “Obviously, you never know nowadays; with calls, they can go either way. But I was pretty confident with how long it was taking that I didn’t think it was going to count.”
After killing off the Washington power play resulting from the failed coach’s challenge, Nashville continued its push with Saros off for an extra attacker.
Roy laid out to block a Jonathan Marchessault bid with just over a minute left, and Thompson made maybe his best save of the night with less than 10 seconds remaining, thwarting Preds’ sniper Filip Forsberg from the slot.
“That guy usually has my number,” says Thompson of Forsberg. “I just kind of faded back there into the blue paint, and I was kind of fortunate that he put it into me. But usually that guy is getting a couple on me every night.”
Coming into Wednesday’s game, Forsberg had six goals on 20 shots in four games against Thompson.
“I thought the effort was there,” says Brunette. “I thought we did a lot of good things. We’re still trying to build our game; nothing is coming easy right now. But I liked that we pushed and were determined. We didn’t get the result, but I think you leave the rink, you should feel pretty good about yourself.”
