Following Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Canucks in Vancouver, the Capitals’ fourth regulation loss in succession, Caps coach Spencer Carbery noted that his team might need to revert to the tight checking, low scoring style that served it so well down the stretch two seasons ago, in 2023-24.
“That's what we're working with our group on,” said Carbery, “is there's nothing wrong with winning the game 2-1, and giving up 10 chances and it being a little bit ugly and a little bit of a fight in the mud.”
In their next game, Friday at Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome, the Caps heeded Carbery’s suggestion. Washington skated off with a 3-1 win that was – for all intents and purposes – a 2-1 win; the final score was accentuated by a late empty-net goal off the stick of Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, who scored the 918th goal of his NHL career to seal the deal for Washington.
The biggest goal of the game for the Caps was Washington’s first of the game, early in the second period. Hendrix Lapierre set off a simultaneous celebration of his teammates on the ice, on the bench and in the press box when he netted his first goal in a span of 91 games, and his first since he scored right here in this building on March 18, 2004.
When Washington drafted Lapierre with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft, it acquired the pick it used to do so from Calgary.
“Obviously, as you guys know, it’s been a while since I’ve scored,” says Lapierre. “But I think overall, the win feels a lot better. I know it’s very cliché, but we needed this win really bad after our last couple of games. And we’ve got to restart tomorrow [in Edmonton], but I felt like today was a step in the right direction.”
Ideally, it’s a start in the right direction for Lapierre, too. His goal was huge, and it clearly energized his teammates, who outshot the Flames 30-10 over the game’s final 40 minutes, this after the Flames held a 16-8 shot advantage in the first period.
“He's such a good kid and he's such a good person,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson of Lapierre. “Not once did he come to the rink and be frustrated or take anything away from the team, and he’s just a really good kid. So he has stuck with it, and it's a huge goal for us at this point in the season. So I’m happy, happy for him.”
“Guys were going nuts on the bench,” says Carbery. “Actually, by the end of it – because I think a [TV] timeout came right after it – there's a few guys I heard [saying], ‘All right, settle down. Like, settle down.
“Lappy works so hard, and he cares so much, and he's such a great teammate. Every guy in there pulls for him, and is doing everything they can to help him be successful on the ice and to for that to come to fruition tonight, and him to score a goal, guys were ecstatic for him on the bench.”
The two teams split the first two periods of Friday’s game; Calgary had the best of the first period and it scored the game’s first goal. The Caps were dominant in the middle frame, and they manufactured the equalizer.
That left the third period to decide things.
That’s when the Caps were able to cobble together the go-ahead goal after the Flames were guilty of icing the puck. The Flames’ Nazem Kadri won the ensuing defensive zone draw from Washington’s Justin Sourdif, but the latter would not be denied. He went after the puck with a vengeance in the right wing corner, forcing a turnover and nudging the puck to Tom Wilson.
Wilson reversed it around the back of the Calgary cage, and Sourdif then won a puck battle there before feeding Wilson at the back post. Wilson’s shot from in tight was denied by Flames goalie Devin Cooley, but the rebound popped out to Aliaksei Protas, who had the entire net at which to shoot. Protas didn’t miss, and the Caps finally had the lead at 2-1 at 7:35 of the third period.
“Sourdif and Wilson,” says Protas. “Basically, that’s what I saw there. Great work from them and I was just getting to the net, and a lucky rebound for me found the way in. And it started from a great forecheck from Willie and Sourdif winning this battle.”
Calgary’s Morgan Frost broke the seal on the scoresheet at 6:09 of the first, scoring off the rush on a Flames power play. After taking a feed from Connor Zary, Frost fired a shot that beat Logan Thompson on the stick side to stake the home team to an early advantage.
Washington was held without a shot on goal for 10 minutes and 38 seconds during the first period, and the Flames doubled up Washington in first period shots on net. Lapierre was the only Capital with more than one shot in the first; he recorded two in just four shifts.
Washington came out like gangbusters in the second period. The Caps swarmed Calgary in its own end and held the Flames without a shot until the 17th minute of the period; by the time blueliner Kevin Bahl finally sent a 68-footer on Thompson late in the frame, it was Calgary’s first shot on net in 19 minutes and 18 seconds of playing time.
All of Washington’s offensive zone time in the second produced just one goal, but it was a big one for Lapierre. Stationed just off the left post, Lapierre was in a perfect spot to bury the rebound of John Carlson’s right point shot after Cooley made a pad stop on the initial drive.
Washington’s power play did not produce a goal, but it was a constant threat. The Caps recorded 13 of their total of 38 shots with the man advantage, and they had half a dozen shots on each of the first two power plays.
According to NHL Stats, Friday’s game marked the first time the Caps surrendered 16 or more shots against in the first period and then yielded 10 or fewer shots against the rest of the way since March 12, 2008 against … wait for it … Calgary, in a game played in Washington.
It all added up to a much-needed victory, the second in as many starts for Thompson in his hometown during his career as a Capital. Thompson was terrific in the first, but he also needed to make the odd big save in the game’s back 40 as well.
He ended the night as the game’s No. 1 star.
“It’s a lot of fun,” says Thompson. “This city means a lot to me. I watched a lot of games in this rink and played a lot. It’s always special to come back, and we only come back once a year. So it’s always just a lot of fun.”
