Caps Get Two the Hard Way

They don't ask how; they ask how many - and that's especially true at this time of year. The Caps came away with two points on Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets, but they had to work longer and harder than they hoped in order to get them.

Washington forged a 3-0 lead - its first three-goal lead of February - and carried it into the penultimate minute of the middle period. But the Jets, embroiled in a spirited chase for playoff positioning in the Western Conference, weren't about to pack it in. They battled back and forced overtime, and when that didn't solve anything, the Caps needed some Braden Holtby saves and a decisive Alex Ovechkin goal in the shootout to gain a 4-3 victory over Winnipeg.
With Tuesday's win, the Caps have cobbled together consecutive wins for the first time since Jan. 18-27.
Prior to Tuesday's game, the Caps honored Ovechkin, who became the eighth player in league history to reach the 700-goal plateau on Saturday against New Jersey. Ovechkin was presented with some Tiffany crystal from the NHL and a Hublot watch from his teammates, and a stirring pair of videos were shown to commemorate the occasion.
"I think we played a solid game," says Ovechkin. "We make a couple of mistakes, and it's not easy to get a win like that. But I think we deserved to win, how we played. All three periods, we played solid."
Minutes after he was feted for No. 700, Ovechkin started making his way toward 800.

Ovechkin scored at the 1:55 mark of the first, putting back his own rebound as an early offensive zone shift resulted in a red light for the Caps. As he did for No. 700 on Saturday in New Jersey, Evgeny Kuznetsov made the primary feed on No. 701, reversing to Ovechkin as he went behind the Winnipeg cage. Jets defenseman Nathan Beaulieu blocked Ovechkin's first bid, but the captain popped it home out of mid-air to put the Caps up, 1-0.
Just past the midpoint of the first, Washington doubled its lead with a jolt of pure speed. The Caps turned in a detailed first period, and their attention to detail - and to defense - sparked some offense in this instance.
As Winnipeg's Patrik Laine carried into the Washington zone, he was met with resistance up high, near the blueline. Dmitry Orlov and T.J. Oshie combined the strip him of the puck, and Jakub Vrana collected it above the circles in Washington ice, and he turned on the jets, split the Jets' third defensive pairing, blazed into Winnipeg ice, beating Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit over the left pad to improve the Caps' lead to 2-0 at 10:07.

"We created a turnover there on the blueline, by coming back and getting it together," says Vrana. "That was a great defensive play by Orly and Osh, and it created the whole chance for me to find that space and try to get a breakaway."
Just past the midpoint of the middle period, the Caps expanded their lead to three, the first time they've enjoyed a three-goal cushion this month. After a lengthy offensive-zone shift from the Lars Eller line, the Caps' remodeled fourth line hopped over the boards for an offensive-zone draw. And nine seconds later, the red light came on.
Garnet Hathaway put a hit on Winnipeg's Anthony Bitetto behind the goal line, blunting the blueliner's backhand exit attempt. Richard Panik collected the puck along the half wall and bumped it to Nic Dowd at the left point, and Dowd put a shot on net. Brossoit made the stop, but Hathaway was right there to deposit the rebound at 13:25, his first goal since Dec. 23.
"I feel like I've been getting a lot of chances," says Hathaway. "I haven't been converting on them, and it's been a battle."
A dozen seconds later, Hathaway and Bitetto dropped mitts and had a scrap when the latter objected to the former's clean hit along the wall in neutral ice. In a span of 12 seconds, Hathaway collected two of the three elements required for a Gordie Howe hat trick.

Winnipeg cut into the Washington lead late in the second, doing so via an imperfect - from the Caps' standpoint - storm of events.
It looked as though Vrana beat a Winnipeg defender to the hash marks in an icing race, but that's not how the zebras saw it, and they blew the whistle for icing. Nicklas Backstrom won the defensive-zone draw, but Michal Kempny's clearing pass hit a skate and caromed right to Cody Eakin in the high slot. Eakin had a free shot and he took it, pounding the puck on net. Holtby stopped but did not secure the shot, and Nikolaj Ehlers pulled it off his pad and put it in to make it a 3-1 game at 18:33.
"I liked the start to our game," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "I liked the first half of the game for sure. That was closer to our style. You saw contact from a number of different guys, you saw offensive-zone time, we convert on some plays. We let them back in at the end of the second, and made a couple mistakes there, and they take advantage of it. But some positive things for sure, through that first almost two periods."
Shortly after the Caps' only power play of the game early in the third, Washington turned the puck over on a low-to-high play, sending the always dangerous Kyle Connor in on a breakaway. He beat Holtby to make it a 3-2 game at 8:39 of the third.
Late in regulation, Winnipeg's Mark Scheifele bulled his way to the Washington net with the puck, and with Orlov in tight pursuit. Scheifele lost his footing, and the puck hit Orlov's skate and bounded it with 3:14 left, tying the game at 3-3 and forcing overtime.
Both sides had chances in the extra session, but both goalies were perfect. Washington scored three times in a five-round shootout, and the Caps' captain combined with Holtby to put a coda on his big night. Ovechkin scored in the fifth, and Holtby stopped Ehlers to seal the win.

"I'm glad we got the point because it's so critical," says Jets coach Paul Maurice. "You'd like to win that game. It gets to a shootout. Lauren was really good and a big piece of us getting to the shootout alone."
The Caps and Jets will do battle again on Thursday night in Winnipeg.