Logan Thompson stopped 36 of 39 shots, and Tom Wilson and Connor McMichael each had a goal and an assist to help the Caps to a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night in Columbus, running Washington’s preseason mark to 4-0-0.
Seeing their first action of the preseason, both Wilson – who registered a Gordie Howe hat trick before the end of the second period – and John Carlson (team high 24:01 in ice time) were sharp, as was Thompson.
“I thought we did some good things,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “The first period, even though we come out up 2-0, I thought that was probably our worst period of the night. I thought they generated a bunch of activity around our net. LT was excellent there early on; we had a couple of close calls. So, we get out of that scenario up 2-0, which I thought we were very, very fortunate. And then I thought we got better as the game moved along."
Thompson faced as many shots in the first frame of Tuesday’s game as he saw in 30 minutes of work in his first preseason appearance in Boston, nine days earlier. He stopped all 16 shots in the first, his workload elevated by a handful of errant breakout feeds that didn’t live up to their name.
“I thought we did a way better job in our defensive zone,” says Carbery of the final 40 minutes, “Just as a group of five, playing on our toes and not just sitting there and letting Columbus chase down loose pucks, sprays. We were a lot more assertive and then our exits – because we were more assertive – were way better with five guys and not just leaving a guy on an island, which resulted in a significant amount of turnovers in the first.”
For the third straight game, Washington got on the board first. Just ahead of the midpoint of the first period, McMichael tipped home David Gucciardi’s left point drive for a 1-0 Washington lead at 8:35.
Late in the frame, the Caps doubled their cushion when Columbus winger Miles Wood took an elbowing penalty in the offensive zone, putting Washington on the game’s first power play. It turned out to be their lone kick at the extra-man can all night.
Hendrix Lapierre was the first member of the second unit to come on the ice, and when he came into possession of the puck in neutral ice, he gained the zone while the rest of the Caps executed a change, Lapierre put the puck deep, then flagged down Zach Werenski’s clearing bid, feeding Declan Chisholm at center point. Chisholm’s shot hit McMichael on the backside before bounding to Andrew Cristall, who was able to bury a backhander from the right side for a 2-0 Washington lead at 17:25.
It was McMichael’s second point of the night that came as a result of him being in front of the cage, proving once again the old adage: net front presence leads to net front presents.
“If you look at a lot of goals I scored last year, a lot of them are around that area there,” says McMIchael. “And I just find when you when you get there, you get rewarded, like I did tonight; a couple hit you or whatnot. But yeah, I just want to keep getting there and keep helping the team win that way.”
Columbus erupted for a pair of power-play goals in the second, but the Caps were able to issue a response within three minutes of each of those markers to maintain that two-goal cushion into the third period.
After Boone Jenner’s extra-man tally at 7:52 of the middle frame, Ilya Protas broke loose on a 2-on-1 rush with Bogdan Trineyev riding shotgun. Protas carried deep before trying a feed to his linemate; the pass took a fortunate bounce off the stick of sprawling Columbus defender Damon Severson, and it found its way behind Jackets goalie Jet Greaves at 10:10.
“It feels great,” says Protas. “I always try to help the team win, even if it’s a goal or a good play, or just a good shift. I try to give my best. It’s always great to score a goal; it feels good.”
Jenner tipped home a Werenski center point shot four seconds into a Columbus power play at 10:56, his second goal of the game. Less than three minutes later, Ivan Miroshnichenko put just enough forechecking heat on Jackets defender Dante Fabbro to enable Tom Wilson to poke the puck off Fabbro’s stick and into the net, putting the Caps up 4-2.
Just 32 seconds later, Wilson dropped the mitts with veteran Jackets blueliner Erik Gudbranson after the latter gave Miroshnichenko a reckless shove from behind, sending him careening into the boards. Miroshnichenko did return to the game.
The Jackets crept to within a goal when Mathieu Olivier scored at 12:23 of the third, but the Caps and Thompson battened down the hatches the remainder of the way – with Carlson and Wilson on the ice for the final two minutes of 5-on-6 time – to preserve Washington’s unblemished exhibition mark.
The Columbus roster wasn’t missing many regulars; the Jackets are quite close to their opening night roster with just one preseason game remaining for them, Saturday in DC. That makes Thompson’s Tuesday night even more impressive.
“I think for a preseason game, it’s what you want as a goalie,” says Thompson. "You let in a couple goals, stuff you can fix and adjust. And also I was able to work on stuff I've been working on in practice. So overall, I’m happy with the game, happy we won. Obviously, it's the biggest, most important thing. But yeah, just keep learning lessons.”
