It was the best of times, then it was the worst of times. And then, it was the best of times again. The Caps skated off with a 7-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday night at Capital One Arena, but the victory didn’t come as easily as the score might suggest.
After Washington struck for three goals in the first period, the Flames roared back with three of their own in the middle frame, with the last two coming shorthanded on the same Washington power play.
In the third period, the Caps fixed what was broken. Connor McMichael scored his second goal of the game on a Washington power play to snap that 3-3 tie, so the same power play unit that enabled the Flames to get back in the game eventually won it for Washington.
The Caps outscored the Flames 6-1 at 5-on-5, and Tom Wilson was Washington’s only goal scorer over the age of 30, as youth was served on this Monday night in the District.
“Obviously, you don't want to be in a 3-3 situation too often when you're up 3-0,” says Caps center Hendrix Lapierre. “But it was good to have that atmosphere in the building and see everyone stepping up on the bench. And obviously, we lost two vocal leaders in this last week, so I think everyone's trying to chip in and replace them, and it's not easy.
“But I liked everyone on the bench today. Everyone was fired up, whether it was for a blocked shot or a good play, and I think that's just our group. Everyone's positive. Everyone's a bunch of gamers, and it makes it really fun.”
Lapierre staked the Caps to an early 1-0 lead at 2:45 of the first, firing the rebound of a Martin Fehervary shot past Calgary’s Devin Cooley from the slot.
Just ahead of the midpoint of the period, Wilson finished off a good offensive zone sequence with a bad angle shot from down along the goal line, lifting the Caps to a 2-0 lead at 9:13 of the first.
And late in the first frame, McMichael converted a sublime Justin Sourdif feed to extend the Caps’ lead to 3-0 on a rip from the slot at 17:43.
Although the Caps were clearly faltering as the second period wore on, Logan Thompson managed to preserve that three-goal cushion for most of the period. Most notably, Thompson made a glove save on Connor Zary on what was essentially a short ice 3-on-0 at the first television timeout of the middle period.
At 16:08 of the second, Calgary’s Matvei Gridin broke the spell, scoring from the bottom of the right circle on a shot that Thompson desperately tried to save with his blocker and just missed.
With the beleaguered Washington power-play unit on the ice soon after the Gridin goal, things went south for the Caps. First, Blake Coleman scored on a shorthanded breakaway a mere seven seconds after the power play was underway, which has to be one of the quickest shorthanded goals – excluding those of the empty-net variety – ever.
Coleman’s goal made it a 3-2 contest at 17:39, and the ever-dangerous Yegor Sharangovich after a Washington turnover and a fine feed from Joel Farabee from behind the Washington net at 18:55.
Washington was not whistled for a penalty in Monday’s game; the Flames went shorthanded three times, once in each period. When blueliner Kevin Bahl was boxed for hi-sticking Alex Ovechkin just before the midpoint of the third period, Washington’s power play had a chance to atone for its sins of the previous period.
The Caps got set up in the Calgary end and went to work. A Rasmus Sandin shot from center point pinballed around near the Calgary cage, creating a goalmouth scramble. The puck slid over to Ovechkin’s side of the ice, and just when it seemed as though the Caps’ captain would have an empty-net tap-in, Coleman swept it away, but right to McMIchael’s tape. He fired it past Cooley to restore the Caps’ lead at 4-3 at 10:52, releasing Bahl from the box.
“I don't think it's been any secret how the power play has been, especially as of late,” says McMichael. “Anytime you give up to two shorties, it's a dagger. It takes the life out of the building, the life out of us. So, yeah, anytime I can contribute – especially on the power play – at this stage, it's huge.”
McMichael finished last season with a career high 26 goals, and he had four two-goal games in Washington’s first 16 games of the season. Tonight marked his first two-goal game since Nov. 15, 2024 at Colorado. His power-play goal was his first since Oct. 24, 2025 at Columbus.
On the very next shift, Calgary mishandled the puck down low in its own end, and it came to Sourdif in the slot. He fired it home – it banked in off Bahl – for the Caps’ second goal in a span of 23 seconds.
Ethen Frank made it 6-3 with an empty-net tally at 17:14, and perhaps the best goal of the night was saved for last.
Ryan Leonard had been all around the Calgary net for much of the night, and particularly in the third period. In the game’s last half minute, Sourdif broke up a play in Washington’s end, and the puck popped out to Leonard near the Washington line. He took off like he had been shot out of a cannon, roared in on a breakaway, put a move on Cooley and calmly lifted a backhander over the prone netminder with 15.6 seconds left in the game.
The three youngest players in the lineup – Leonard, Sourdif and Lapierre – all scored and the 25-year-old McMichael struck twice. Sourdif had a pair of assists for a three-point night, and Lapierre added an assist for his first multi-point game since Nov. 20.
“Goals, especially at 5-on-5 – well, goals in general – have been a little hard to come by of late,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “So, for them to go in for us – especially early in the game – you could tell it gave our guys a lot of confidence.
“And I think individually, especially Sourdie, I noticed Sourdie; Sourdie had been a little bit quiet of late. Just chalk it up to a long year, a first-year NHL player is going to go through stretches like that. He was noticeable tonight, had the puck on his stick, was poised with it, moving his feet.
“Mikey scores a couple of big goals. The power-play goal – obviously – is massive. The early one in the first [from Lapierre] to kind of get us going. So, all those guys chip in and get rewarded offensively. I know it’s crazy to say this, but even the late goal for Leno I think is a positive. He’s frustrated, a little bit snake bit. He gets a Grade A that doesn’t go for him and the power play stuff, but for him to finish on a breakaway – even though the game was sealed – that was good to see.”
Tonight’s game marked the 29th time in Washington franchise history that the Caps yielded two shorthanded goals in the same game, and they improved their record to 4-24-1 in such games. Tonight’s win over Calgary was the Caps’ first win under those circumstances since a 4-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes here on Nov. 21, 2011.
It’s not every day you see a total of 10 goals scored in an NHL game with all of them going into the same net at the same end of the ice, but that’s how Monday’s match – the opener of a five-game road trip and a set of back-to-backs for the Flames – played out.
“Well, we gave them the three goals to start with,” says Flames coach Ryan Huska. “First period, I thought we did some things offensively where we were moving our feet; I don’t think we were hard enough defensively, and that’s where you see the three goals come from.
“I really liked what we did in the second period; there were a lot of good things that came from that. And then unfortunately, we take a penalty in the third period – late – and they capitalize on that opportunity.”
