Evan Bouchard had his first NHL hat trick plus three assists to help the Edmonton Oilers to a 6-5 overtime victory over the Capitals Saturday night at Rogers Arena. Connor McDavid – who had a five-point night (two goals, three assists) of his own – scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway just 47 seconds into the extra session.
Seeking to string wins together for the first time in more than seven weeks, Washington was less than a minute away from doing so when Zach Hyman converted a McDavid feed at the goalmouth to knot the game at 5-5 with just 31.7 seconds remaining. Bouchard made the play possible with a diving keep at the offensive blueline seconds earlier, denying the Caps a desperately needed change.
Down to five defensemen after losing Rasmus Sandin to a lower body injury at the end of the second period, Washington defenders John Carlson and Martin Fehervary had been on the ice for over two minutes each by the time Hyman scored the tying goal. Playing for the second time in as many nights, Carlson skated 9:10 in the third period alone, and he ate 7:03 of the 8:35 of total Edmonton power play time on the night.
“I loved our game tonight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought our guys fought like hell tonight. And like I said this [afternoon], that’s as difficult a game as we have on the schedule. And then you put in the travel and getting in at 4 a.m., and just the way we fought through the adversity of the game and the ups and downs – you’re up and now it’s back even – I’m just real proud of the way that we played tonight.”
It was a barnburner of a hockey game with a slew of lead changes.
Charlie Lindgren was needed to make some big stops early and often on Saturday in Edmonton. His first stop of the game was on Matt Savoie from the top of the paint, his second was on a Vasily Podkolzin breakaway and his third was on an Ike Howard breakaway, all in the game’s first seven minutes.
Although the Caps spent some time in Edmonton ice in the first, they couldn’t get any shots on net until very late in the period.
Bouchard started the scoring at 19:12 of the third, putting a point shot behind Lindgren.
The Caps were resilient; they answered back before the end of the period. At that point of the game, the opposing goaltender – Connor Ingram – had a .000 save pct., and yet the Caps were trailing in the game.
Not to worry, kid.
The Caps pulled even less than half a minute later with the first of three straight rush goals. Tom Wilson carried down the right side and put it back to center point for Sandin, who notched the Caps’ first shot on goal of the night with less than half a minute remaining in the first. Ingram made the save, but Aliaksei Protas was right there to pot the rebound and square the score at 1-1 with 25.2 seconds left on the clock.
Early in the second, Bouchard beat Lindgren with another point shot, making it a 2-1 contest at 4:13.
Seconds later, Edmonton went on the first of three power plays in the middle period. The Caps managed to kill it off, and seconds after exiting the box, Hendrix Lapierre made a slick play at the Washington line to get the puck to neutral ice for Justin Sourdif, who scooted into the Oilers zone and threaded a shot through Ingram’s legs to make it a 2-2 tilt at 6:50.
In the back half of the frame, the Caps jumped in front when Anthony Beauvillier scored on a similar play and from a similar spot on the ice. That goal at 14:21 ended Ingram’s night; he was pulled in favor of Tristan Jarry. Ingram yielded three goals on a dozen shots in 34:29 between the pipes.
The Caps carried a 3-2 lead into the third, and they finished killing off a carryover power play, only to have Bouchard score his third goal of the game at 4:30 of the third to make it a 3-3 game.
Again, the Caps were quick to answer back. On a Washington power play, Dylan Strome floated a seeing eye shot past Jarry from distance, putting the Caps up 4-3 at 6:40.
It was Edmonton’s turn to answer, and it was McDavid that did so, striking for the Oilers’ lone power-play goal of the game – on five attempts – at 8:35.
In the back half of the final frame, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin drew a penalty call that put Washington on its fifth power play of the night. And although the Caps did not convert, they kept the heat on.
From just off the left post, Connor McMichael kept hammering away at the puck, and the fourth of his four shots in three seconds found its way to the back of the net, six seconds after the power play expired at 15:09.
“I was real in tight and I just kept whacking at it,” says McMichael. “And honestly, in hindsight, I should have taken an extra second and tried to get it up. But fortunately, it worked out.”
But with Jarry pulled for an extra attacker and some road and travel weary Caps vying to defend the skilled Oilers, Edmonton put significant pressure on Washington in the final two minutes. Lindgren made four stops in that span, but Hyman managed to get his stick into the blue paint and redirect McDavid’s feed into the net to force overtime.
The Caps never truly had possession in the extra session, and they had to settle for three points out of four in a rugged set of weekend back-to-backs.
“I think if we play like that every night, we give ourselves a really good chance to win some games,” says Beauvillier. “That’s just the way it goes sometimes, but it’s been a grind lately. I think we gave ourselves the best chance to win tonight, and this is how it’s going to have to look if we want to win.”
Bouchard’s outstanding performance put him into the NHL record books as just the fourth defenseman in NHL history – and the first in over 33 years – to record at least three goals and three assists in a single game. He joins Bobby Orr, Tom Bladon and Doug Crossman in that unique distinction.
