For the eighth time in their last 18 games since the calendar flipped to 2025, the Capitals had to work overtime on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena against the Utah Hockey Club. And for the sixth time in those eight games, the Caps came out on the short end of the final score, dropping a 5-4 shootout decision to the visitors from Salt Lake City.
Washington fell behind by multiple goals early in Sunday’s game, and it was never able to take the lead, but for the third time in the last five games, the Caps were able to pull a point from a game in which they trailed by a pair of goals in the third period. In their last five games, the Caps were down four times heading into the third period, and they were even once. They managed to earn points in all five (2-0-3).
“It’s not a good enough start,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson, who had a two-goal, three-point game. “I think we played hard in the third, I think we took it to them, and we’ve obviously proved to ourselves how we can play when we’re playing together and playing the right way. I think probably if we start at puck drop, we’re walking [away] with a different result. But good resiliency to try and get back into it.”
Early in the season, the trio of Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome and Wilson did much of the heavy offensive lifting for the Capitals. Wilson scored in each of the first four games of the season while Strome had six multi-point games and Ovechkin had four multi-point outings in Washington’s first 10 games this season.
Lately, that trio has also been clutch for the Caps in comeback situations. Each of those three skaters had a multi-point afternoon on Sunday, fueling the latest Caps comeback and extending Washington’s home point streak to 15 straight games (10-0-5).
On Jan. 30 in Ottawa, Ovechkin and Strome scored in the third to close a two-goal deficit and force overtime. Two nights later against Winnipeg at home, Wilson and Ovechkin supplied the third-period markers that resulted in extra hockey. Sunday, Strome and Wilson struck in the third to help Washington eke out another point, its 80th of the season.
“We just didn’t start on time, and we were down 2-0 early,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We get that power-play goal to get us back into it, and then we give up another one. The first two [periods] were not very good; it is what it is.
“Once again, our guys deserve credit. We fought back in the third; the third was a really solid period. And it’s to be expected; we’re going to keep fighting. And they are on a back-to-back, so we control play and we find a way to get that game tied up, and that’s what we’ll take out of it.”
The first period was a high event affair right off the hop, and the Caps were in a two-goal hole before the game was two minutes old. Josh Doan staked Utah to a 1-0 lead when his shot from just inside the Washington line slipped through Logan Thompson at 1:10 of the first. A mere 32 seconds later, the UHC doubled its lead on Michael Carcone’s back door goal, the visitors’ second goal on as many shots on net.
With two goals in the opening 1:42 of the game, Utah notched its quickest two goals from the start of a game this season, and it matched the Caps’ mark for fastest two goals from a game’s outset in 2024-25. On Nov. 2 against Columbus,
Washington went on an early power play when Ethen Frank was able to draw an unwise offensive zone tripping minor on Utah’s Olli Maatta. The Caps cashed in on their own first shot of the game, a Tom Wilson one-timer from the bumper spot at 3:47. Wilson’s team-leading 10th power-play goal of the season cut the Utah lead to 2-1.
Utah regained its two-goal cushion on a rush goal at 7:07 of the first. Jack McBain took a feed from Michael Kesselring, drove the center lane and beat Thompson on the glove side to make it a 3-1 contest.
Not long after the midpoint of the opening period, the Caps cut the lead to one with another power-play goal. From the slot, Alex Ovechkin rang a high shot off the mask of Utah netminder Connor Ingram. Wilson collected the rebound and dished it to P-L Dubois down low, and Dubois flashed some quick hands to tuck it on the short side, making it a 3-2 game at 12:38.
Dubois’ goal also ended Ingram’s afternoon; the netminder left game with an injury incurred on Ovechkin’s initial shot. Karel Vejmelka came on in relief, less than 24 hours after he was dented for six goals on 37 shots in Saturday’s loss at Carolina. Vejmelka was solid for Utah for the remainder of the afternoon, stopping 30 of 32 shots to improve to 13-15-4 on the season.
Utah added to its lead with a Dylan Guenther power-play goal at 2:47 of the second; Guenther converted a Clayton Keller feed with a one-timer from the left dot, and the Caps entered the third period in a two-goal hole, doing so for the third time in their last five games.
Carbery altered the complexion of all four of his lines to start the third, but it was when he went back to a familiar trio – the unit of Ovechkin, Strome and Connor McMichael – that the Caps were able to break through and pull to within one of the UHC.
McMichael gained the zone and pulled up, threading a feed to Ovechkin in the high slot. The captain carried to the right wing wall as Strome went to the net. Strome tipped Ovechkin’s shot, but Vejmelka made the stop. Strome kicked the rebound to his stick blade and buried it at 4:49 of the third to make it a 4-3 contest.
“Mikey made a good play in the neutral zone, and brought it in and then mad a good play to cutback,” recounts Strome. “And then [Ovechkin] found some ice and kind of saw me in the middle, and just chipped it on net, and I got the rebound.
“Nice to claw our way back, it felt like we knew we were going to tie it at some point. We had a lot of chances, and a lot of guys were buzzing.”
Washington wasn’t able to pull even until the final two minutes of regulation, when Thompson went to the bench for an extra attacker. Five seconds after Strome won a left dot draw in the Utah zone, the Caps evened the game.
Strome won the draw to John Carlson, who was honored in a pregame ceremony mark his 700th career NHL point, achieved in Buffalo just under a month ago. Carlson put it back to Ovechkin in the left circle, and with Wilson prominently presenting his stick blade at the top of the paint, Ovechkin put it right on the tape and Wilson angled it home, squaring the score at 4-4 at 18:29.
Vejmelka made a sprawling stop on Jakob Chychrun in overtime, and the Caps went meekly in the shootout, failing to score on all three tries while Nick Schmaltz scored on Utah’s first try, sending UHC home with a 2-1-0 road trip. Washington has scored only once in three shootouts this season; Dubois has their only skills competition goal.
“It’s huge,” says Utah coach Andre Tourigny of his team’s victory. “They’re a big team, they’re the best team in the East, and we’re on a back-to-back. But demanding game [Saturday in Carolina], we arrived here today, they’re huge, they’re difficult to play, but we found a way to get the two points. It’s huge.”
