Logan Thompson made 23 saves and five different Capitals found the back of the net to help Washington cruise to a 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks at Chicago’s United Center Friday night. The win came on the front end of the two-game Mentors’ Trip, with the dads, brothers, brothers-in-law and other mentors watching from a suite high above the ice.
“You could feel it all day,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “The mentors and the dads being around, and [Nic Dowd’s] brother [Josh] started us off with a great lineup read to get the guys fired up. We've done very well on these trips; they always want to play well and make sure that they're [at their best], because I'm the least of their worries when they have to answer to dad about their about their individual game and how the game went, so we try our best to put on a good show and make sure we’re playing the right way.”
After an absence of a dozen games because of a shoulder injury, the Hawks got Connor Bedard back in their lineup on Friday night as they endeavored to extend their winning streak to five games, but the return of Bedard was more than tempered by several fresh absences from the Chicago lineup because of a wave of illness.
The shorthanded Hawks were without goaltenders Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom – Soderblom did take warmups – as well as top nine forward Ilya Mikheyev and top pair defender Louis Crevier on Friday night. Chicago was forced to summon netminder Drew Commesso from nearby AHL Rockford, and they dressed Dave Nozzolillo as their emergency backup goaltender (EBUG).
Six nights ago in Washington, the Hawks grabbed an early 1-0 lead over the Capitals on their first shot on net of the night, a Ryan Donato deflection from the top of the paint. Friday night in Chicago, the Caps returned the favor on a nifty Anthony Beauvillier goal on Washington’s first shot of the game.
After some good work in the corner from the Nic Dowd line, the puck cam John Carlson at the right point. Carlson went to partner Martin Fehervary at the left point, and he spotted and perfectly Beauvillier just off the right post. Beauvillier bit the hand that once fed him, deflecting it home on his backhand for a 1-0 Washington lead at 4:03 of the first.
“Really good play, first of all, by John, just going up quick and playing quick in the [offensive] zone, and then Marty making such a good play,” recounts Beauvillier of his goal. “And I just close my eyes and hope for it to hit my stick and go in, and it did.”
Four and a half minutes later, the Caps slipped into some penalty soup. First, Justin Sourdif was boxed for slashing, and 45 seconds later, Fehervary’s clearing bid cleared the window, incarcerating him for delay of game and putting Chicago on a two-man advantage of 75 seconds in duration.
Not to worry kid.
Thompson stopped all five Chicago shots on the power play, including three during the two-man advantage, two of which came off the tape of Tyler Bertuzzi from the top of the paint.
“That’s in the pre-scout, too,” says Thompson of the stops on Bertuzzi. “That guys scores a lot of goals from the paint, so I kind of knew he was always back there.”
Having navigated that perilous predicament, the Caps went back to work offensively. Sourdif won a draw in his own end of the ice, and Ryan Leonard head-manned a feed to space. Connor McMichael raced after it, got to it first, and drew a delayed penalty on the pursuing Matt Grzelcyk, then tucked it through Commesso’s five-hole at 15:07, a mere seven seconds after the draw in Washington ice.
“Lenny made a really nice heads up play to find me,” recounts McMichael. “And luckily, I was able to beat him up ice and just find a hole there in the five-hole. And I feel like I've had a lot of those chances, so it's, it's nice to see one go in like that.”
Late in the period, the Caps extended their advantage, again doing so seconds after winning a draw in their own end. Dowd won the draw, and after an aborted attempt to enter Chicago ice on the right side, he lofted it to the left half wall for Carlson. Carlson put it down low for Ethen Frank, who beat Commesso on the short side at 18:54, just 17 seconds after the face-off in Washington ice.
Thompson made a stellar right pad stop on Bertuzzi on another Chicago power play in the second, but the Hawks broke the spell when Oliver Moore scored from the left dot on the same man advantage at 8:48 of the middle period.
Just under four minutes later, the Caps restored their three-goal cushion when Sourdif jimmied a loose puck in the goalmouth over the left pad of Commesso, making it a 4-1 contest at 12:54.
“The goal that that sealed the game was the fourth goal,” says Carbery. “Because once it gets to 3-1, it's game on; they're right there. There's a ton of game left. There's some contentious moments at 3-1, the next one they get, it's 3-2, and you know it’s going to be a fight to the finish.
“That fourth goal, to get back up three off a great job on the forecheck by Sourdif, and he gets rewarded. They attacked the net right away, and we’ve talked extensively as a group about scoring some goals like that, so it's an impressive job by them to get it back to three, goals.”
Thompson made a save on Bedard from in tight in the first minute of the third, and the Caps successfully snuffed out a Chicago power play without a shot on net in the front half of the final frame.
In the back half of the third, Alex Ovechkin took a springing feed from Fehervary, drove into Chicago ice and threaded a shot through Commesso from the inside of the left circle. Ovechkin’s fourth goal in the last three games – and the 916th of his NHL career – came at 13:33 of the third.
After the game, both teams hustled off to the airport for flights to Nashville, where Chicago faces the Predators on Saturday and the Caps conclude the 2025-26 Mentors’ Trip on Sunday.
