Facing the Florida Panthers in the finale of a three-game homestand, the Caps were in dire need of a victory on Saturday afternoon. They had dropped the first two games of a three-game homestand – doing so without ever holding a scoreboard lead – and they were aiming to avoid dropping three straight home games in regulation for the first time since February of 2025.
Although they lost Tom Wilson to a five-minute major and a game misconduct in the first period, Wilson’s linemates – Pierre-Luc Dubois and Aliaksei Protas – stepped up big time in his absence, and Logan Thompson delivered a vintage performance to notch his seventh win of the season, a 4-3 victory over the formidable Florida squad.
Washington was able to pull it off by outplaying the Panthers at 5-on-5 in all three periods. The Caps largely controlled the pace and the flow of the game, they avoided having too many lengthy shifts in their own end of the ice, and they managed enough even-strength scoring chances – Natural Stat Trick had them with a 13-8 advantage in high danger chances at even-strength – to win two games.
Perhaps most importantly, they didn’t take their foot off the gas at all in the final frame, which they entered with a 3-2 lead.
“I think really important,” says Caps winger Alex Tuch. “They're such a good forechecking team. They’ve got a lot of skill, they want to play physical and hard, and I think we used our speed and especially in the second period, we were playing really quick. I didn't think we gave them too much time in our in our [defensive] zone, and we just wanted to play in their zone as much as possible.
“And we carried it on into the third. And they’ve got a lot of skill out there, so they're going to make some plays. And obviously they got one with about 45 seconds left that we'd like back, but we were able to hold it down.”
Both teams scored on their first shot on net of the afternoon, and for Caps defenseman Jack St. Ivany, that first shot of the afternoon produced his first goal in the National Hockey League at 2:21 of the first period.
Playing in his 62nd career NHL game – and fifth as a member of the Capitals – St. Ivany pulled a muffed clearing attempt from Panthers goalie Akira Schmid off the right half wall and flung it toward the net. The blueliner got a membership bounce as the puck took a wild hop and bounded over Schmid’s left shoulder and in, lifting the Caps to a 1-0 lead at 2:21 of the first.
“It was early in the game, so I'm trying to get something towards the net, keep the play alive,” recounts St. Ivany. “I probably get one of those a game. I don't think I've ever had one bounce in front of me and go top corner before, but I'll take it.”
Alas, it was a short-lived advantage. Brady Tkachuk tied the game on the Panthers’ first shot of the game just 52 seconds later, with brother Matthew providing the primary assist at 3:13.
Wilson was assessed a boarding major and a game misconduct at 8:55 of the first when his hard hit on Florida rookie Sandis Vilmanis dropped the forward to the ice. Vilmanis departed the game and did not return, and Florida went on an all-you-can-eat five-minute power play.
At exactly the 10-minute mark of the first, Brady Tkachuk netted his second of the night on that power play, lifting Florida to a 2-1 lead. And the Caps still had nearly four minutes worth of the penalty to deal with.
Thompson made a terrific lateral stop on noted Caps killed Carter Verhaeghe to enable Washington to manage the damage the Cats could inflict with the extra man. Thompson also made a stellar stop on Matthew Tkachuk with less than five seconds left in the first.
Early in the second period, Tuch inflicted some damage on the Panthers to get the game even. Tuch executed the “swipe and snipe;” stripping the disc from Sam Bennett in neutral ice and then drawing a penalty as he crept into Florida territory. Tuch made the penalty call moot when he fired a shot to the far corner behind Schmid at 4:39 to square the score at 2-2.
“I leaned on him big time tonight with Willie going down,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Tuch. “I think he played 23 minutes – [which] for a forward is a lot – and he's a gamer, man. He came up to me and goes, ‘Double shift me, get me out there as much as you possibly can. I'm good to go.’
“So, in these moments, in these games, where you can feel the temperature rising, and that he wants the ball, he says, ‘Carbs, get me out there as much as you possibly can,’ and he made a bunch of big plays. Thought he was one of our best players tonight.”
Less than a minute after Tuch’s tying tally, Thompson prevented another lead change with a sharp right pad denial on Lars Eller’s point-blank bid to bite the hand that once fed him.
With just under five minutes left in the middle period, the Caps regained the lead on an Aliaksei Protas goal. Dubois made a sublime and patient feed to Protas on the weak side, allowing the big winger a gaping net into which he calmly deposited the puck at 14:55.
Washington was a determined bunch in the third. The Caps kept the forechecking heat on the Panthers, forcing them to play mostly in their own end early in the third. Dubois managed to score a nifty goal to double the Caps’ third period cushion to two goals. The cerebral center slipped a shot around Schmid from in close, making it a 4-2 contest at 4:42.
The Caps killed off a couple of Florida power plays in the third, and their lead became perilous when Bennett scored a 6-on-5 goal with Schmid pulled for an extra attacker at 19:13.
Florida called its timeout in hopes of drawing something up that would allow them to manufacture an equalizer, but the Caps refused to cooperate. They hemmed the Cats into their own end for the rest of the final minute, and Schmid was never able to get off the ice for an extra skater.
“We needed a good performance today, with the way the last couple games went,” says Carbery. “Even though we felt good about our game coming out of them, they're two in the loss column. So, to just fight through a little adversity tonight, and gut that out as a group against a really good team – it's a big, heavy, hard game, so it's competitive, there's tempers flaring – that's a big win for our team, a big, big win early in the season.”
“One of the most difficult things to do in hockey – or probably in all sports – is to defend off a turnover,” says Florida coach Paul Maurice. “You’re not in a defensive position; you’re in offensive position. We just had a whole bunch of plays that we turned the puck over and couldn’t defend off that.”
Maurice also provided a postgame update on Vilmanis’ condition.
“He will get looked at by another doctor [Sunday],” says the Florida bench boss. “But probably we’ll have to wait until we get him back to see our guys before we have a real good idea, with some imaging and things like that.”
