Ovechkin and Caps Stun Isles with Late Rally, 6-4

Not quite four months into the 2019-20 season, if we've learned anything, we've learned not to count the Capitals out of a game. On Saturday afternoon against the Islanders in New York, Washington issued yet another stout reminder of exactly that.

In the process, the assembled crowd 13,917 - a fair amount of them clad in red - were treated to another display of offensive pyrotechnics from Alex Ovechkin.
The Caps went to the room in a three-goal ditch after 40 minutes of play, and with their weeklong midseason break looming just beyond the third period, many probably figured it was game over.
But Washington roared back with five unanswered goals in the third to stun the staggering Islanders 6-4, sending them to their fourth defeat in five games and their second straight gut-wrenching setback in the latter stages of a home game.

"Going into the third period that's how we drew it up," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "There was not going to be any quit from our team. We made a change with some of our lines and some [defensive] pairs and our goaltender, and said, 'We're not going to stop trying until this buzzer sounds, and let's just focus on the next goal.'
"I can't say enough about our leadership in our room, and the guys' battle level, compete to the very end, and we gave ourselves a chance. Obviously, it's a phenomenal win for us."
Ovechkin put on a show, continuing one of the hottest spells of his career with his second straight hat trick and his third straight multi-goal game. In the process, he nudged Mario Lemieux out of the league's all-time top ten, tied Steve Yzerman (692) for ninth place on that list, and pulled to within eight of the 700-goal plateau for his career.
"To be honest with you, it's great players out there," says Ovechkin. "It's something special, you know, with history. It's people."
Isles coach Barry Trotz's typical third-period lockdown, something the Caps witnessed first-hand over Trotz's four seasons behind the Washington bench, was nowhere to be found on Saturday. Typically airtight with even a one-goal lead in the back half of the third, the normally defensively sound Islanders were not that in the final frame.
"After the second period, we talked about it, that this team has championship pedigree," says Trotz of the Capitals. "They've come back in a number of games this year. They've come back from two goals down with a minute to go. You can't take your foot off the pedal; you've got to get pucks to the next level. We didn't do that."
Ovechkin's super heater continued just after the midway mark of the first frame. Nicklas Backstrom collected the puck on the half wall in the Caps' end and threaded a perfect feed to Ovechkin at the opposite blueline, where he managed to get slightly behind the Islanders' defense. From the inside of the right circle, Ovechkin snapped a shot past former teammate Semyon Varlamov on the stick side at 10:22, victimizing him for his 690th career goal, which matched Mario Lemieux for 10th place on the league's all-time list.

New York drew even on a Brock Nelson shot from the slot less than three minutes later, and the Caps issued a coach's challenge on the play, alleging Nelson was off-side upon his entry into the offensive zone. The subsequent video review upheld the goal call, and Washington immediately went shorthanded for delay of game. When Carl Hagelin was sent off for interference just 23 seconds later, the Caps found themselves facing a 5-on-3 power play of 97 seconds in duration.
Washington safely navigated its way through that stretch, with Braden Holtby making three saves and the Isles missing the mark on another shot try. But 15 seconds after Hagelin exited the box, the Isles scored again to take a 2-1 lead when Casey Cizikas' intended pass for Derick Brassard instead clanked off the skate of Caps defenseman Radko Gudas and went in at 15:49.
Things didn't improve for the Caps in the middle frame. Not only did they fail to take advantage of six minutes worth of power play time, they yielded a power-play goal and another at 5-on-5 late in the period.
Jordan Eberle made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 9:31. From the goal line next to the left post, Eberle whirled and tried to make a backhand feed through the crease to the opposite post. Instead, his pass caught Holtby's skate and caromed in.
Less than a minute after completing the third of their three second-period penalty kills, New York nailed on another one to expand its lead. Devon Toews worked a give-and-go with Leo Komarov, getting the puck back from the winger on the weak side and beating Holtby in a 1-on-1 situation at 17:25, putting the Caps in a 4-1 hole heading into the third.
The legendary Elvis Costello once wrote and sang, "Don't bury me cuz I'm not dead yet," and the Caps operated under that mantra from the outset of the third. With Ilya Samsonov replacing Holtby between the pipes and with some lineup tweaks, the Caps went to work.

Early in the frame, a strong and sustained shift in the offensive zone enabled them to close to within two. Nick Jensen's point shot was blocked, but Richard Panik made a nifty play to win a puck battle with Toews near the net. He spotted and fed Hagelin in front to make it 4-2 at 2:33.
Less than three minutes later, Ovechkin struck off the rush, his backhander going past Varlamov after a favorable bounce off Isles defender Ryan Pulock at 5:18. That goal moved Ovechkin past Lemieux, and it also triggered Trotz into taking his timeout in an effort to sturdy his troops.
The Isles kept it together for the better part of the next 10 minutes, but with 5:28 remaining the Caps got it knotted up. From the left point, Dmitry Orlov wound up and cranked a slapper toward the net. Tom Wilson was in front, and he got a piece of it as it flew past Varlamov, making it a 4-4 game.
Washington wasn't finished. T.J. Oshie jimmied a puck into the Isles end, but lost his footing in the process. New York's Josh Bailey got to it and tried to clear but didn't. Jakub Vrana collected the puck and moved toward the net, the only white sweater amidst a trio of Islanders. From the right dot, Vrana ripped a wrist shot past Varlamov, and the fourth Caps' goal in a span of 14 minutes and 57 seconds gave Washington its first lead since the first frame.
With Varlamov off for an extra attacker, Oshie fed Ovechkin coming out of the Caps' end. The captain shimmied around Pulock and lofted the puck into the vacant net to make it 6-4. That goal tied him with Steve Yzerman for ninth place all-time.
"Our team, we just all in," says Reirden. "We were not leaving this building, without at least 20 minutes being all in, everything you've got. You've got a full week to rest. Let's just leave it all out there and see what happens. Let's just focus on that next goal and we did, shift after shift.

"Now we are able to leave with a really good frame of mind heading into some down time, and some time where we can look back and see the ways we've been able to have success and realize that those will be the things we focus back on, as we push forward here to the end of the year."