What a difference a week makes. Last Monday night, the Caps opened an important five-game road trip with a 3-0 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg. Two nights later, they absorbed a 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the Oilers in Edmonton. But the resilient Caps rebounded to eke out 2-1 wins in both Seattle and Vancouver, and on Monday night in Calgary, they put a happy coda on the journey with a 5-2 victory over the Flames in Calgary.
Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of power-play goals, and Dylan Strome, Hendrix Lapierre and Tom Wilson added singles in support of Charlie Lindgren, who made 34 saves to claim his 18th victory of the season, and his third in as many starts to conclude the trip.
“That’s the positive for tonight, is the results,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “We didn’t have nearly our best, but we gutted it out, did enough. The power play stepped up and scored two huge goals. I thought the fourth goal was a huge turning point in the game, [Lapierre], [Max] Pacioretty and [Sonny] Milano, to get that goal. Milano keeps that puck in and Lappy finishes at the net front; I thought that goal, that was the turning point. But we definitely stole one tonight without our best.”
Ovechkin’s two-goal night pushed him to 21 on the season and 843 for his NHL career. He joins Gordie Howe (22) and Brendan Shanahan as just the third player in League history to notch 19 consecutive seasons with 20 or more goals. Ovechkin’s goals came against Calgary rookie Dustin Wolf, the 174th different goaltender he has scored against in his career. Only Jaromir Jagr (178) and Patrick Marleau (177) have scored against more different netminders than the Washington captain.
“Obviously we’re all cheering for him,” says Lapierre of Ovechkin. “I think everyone is super happy when he scores; obviously, everyone’s super happy when everyone scores. But I feel like there is a little something extra with O, and it was two really big goals tonight, too.”
With Monday’s victory, the Caps vault past idle Detroit and into the second wild card slot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, the first time they’ve held a playoff spot since Jan. 2. Washington travels home on Tuesday, and it opens a critical four-game homestand on Wednesday against Toronto.
Monday’s game started as a quiet, low event affair. There were no penalties in the opening frame, and neither team was able to establish much offensively until late in the periods when Washington generated a lengthy offensive zone shift that paid dividends.
Nic Dowd’s line started the shift, in the defensive zone, naturally. They moved the puck north to Calgary territory, and Dowd eventually went to the bench in favor of Dylan Strome while the Caps continued to work it around. Following a blueline exchange from Nick Jensen to Rasmus Sandin, the latter found Strome in the right circle. From there, Strome picked his spot and fired it home for a 1-0 Washington advantage at 14:59.
Strome gave credit to Dowd for the alert change.
“Just really, really unselfish, good hockey by Nic Dowd,” says Strome. “He’s a huge part of our team, and obviously with the rumors that were around at the [trade] deadline, I’m really happy we kept him. It’s showing that I think we made the right decision.”
In the second, Flames defenseman Brayden Pachal was whistled for a pair of minor penalties, and Ovechkin and the Caps made them pay both times. First, Pacioretty teed him up for a nifty redirect goal from the top of the paint after Tom Wilson gained the zone off the rush, doubling the Caps’ lead at 5:58 of the second.
Just over three minutes later, Ovechkin scored again, taking a center point feed from John Carlson and drilling his patented one-timer past Wolf from the top of the left circle to make it 3-0.
“I think we play simple,” says Ovechkin of the Caps’ power play success on this night. “We moved the puck and didn’t hold it too much, and you can see how Patch finds me out there; it’s a pretty good play. And second one the same; Stromer to Carly, and Carly to me.”
Calgary answered back with a Kevin Rooney goal, one on which Carbery believed there had been goaltender interference. Carbery took his timeout to assess the video, then lodged on official coach's challenge. The officials did not concur, so the goal stood, and the Caps went immediately to the penalty kill. Washington’s shorthanded outfit killed the penalty without incident, and less than two minutes later, the Caps restored their three-goal cushion.
Milano kept the puck in the Calgary zone at the left point, then floated a backhander toward the net with some air beneath it. Stationed in the slot, Lapierre expertly wheeled and whipped the puck on a short hop and past Wolf, making it 4-1 at 14:22.
“He’s super smart,” says Lapierre of Milano. “It’s fun to play with Patch and Sonny. I feel like we’ve had a lot of success, playing a lot in the [offensive] zone, and it’s fun to get rewarded with the goal. He just makes a really, really nice play, and I guess I kind of get lucky, get a good bounce.”
Calgary’s MacKenzie Weegar made things interesting with a high slot drive that went off the post and in at 7:13 of the third, and the Flames, also chasing a playoff berth, suddenly had life and momentum. But Lindgren shut the door the rest of the way, and the Caps put together one more lengthy offensive zone shift in the back half of the period to take the starch out of Calgary’s comeback bid.
With 2:29 left, Wilson accounted for the 5-2 final with an empty-net tally, his 17th goal of the season.
In a week’s time, the Caps turned around their trip and their season. Outscored by a combined 10-2 in the first two games of the trip, they tightened up in their end and outscored their last three foes 9-4.
“Great feeling,” says Ovechkin. “We knew it was not going to be easy. We keep fighting, keep playing, and we are going game by game.”
The next one is Wednesday night against Toronto at Capital One Arena.
