For the better part of 40 minutes on Friday night in Columbus, the Capitals and the Blue Jackets hooked up in a scoreless duel that was befitting of the NHL's two best teams at defending at 5-on-5 in the early going of the 2025-26 season. But once the Caps were able to break the ice late in the second period, they struck for a couple more quick ones early in the third, and ultimately prevailed 5-1 over the Jackets.
Logan Thompson turned in a stellar performance in the Washington nets, stopping 34 of the 35 shots he faced and making some dazzling stops and sometimes handling brief flurries of shots with aplomb. He kept the Jackets at bay until the Caps’ attack could get on track, and Thompson also started the scoring play on Washington’s third goal of the game.
Playing in his 1,499th career NHL game, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin netted the 899th goal of his NHL career, and it proved to be the game-winner. Ovechkin's goal was the 336th third-period goal of his NHL career, tying Wayne Gretzky for most in League history.
“I think we just stole two points,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Logan was fantastic, especially to keep us in it in the first – whatever it was – 40 minutes of the game. I thought we were very fortunate to be leading 1-0 after two, and then that second goal was a big moment off the face-off.
“So, we’ll take it, but we’re certainly going to need to be a lot better [Saturday].”
The first frame was snappy and scoreless; it featured only 10 face-offs and a couple of lengthy stretches between whistles. Washington generated three shots and plenty of offensive zone time on the game’s first power play late in the first, but it could not manage to break the seal on the scoresheet.
By the latter stages of the middle period, the game was still scoreless, and both teams had been thwarted on a pair of power play opportunities. While the first period was relatively even, Columbus had the better of the scoring chances in the second, and it outshot Washington by a 10-2 count.
But in the penultimate minute of the middle frame, the Caps took a 1-0 lead on the second of those two shots on net.
The Jackets made it difficult for the Caps to traverse the neutral zone in Friday’s game, stacking bodies between the bluelines, and the Caps played into their hands with turnovers that fed the Columbus transition game.
“[We were] just so sloppy through the neutral zone,” says Carbery. “Turned it over at least eight, nine, ten times. And not only is it turning over, it’s leading to transition chances.”
Late in the period, Columbus entered Washington ice, but John Carlson was able to wrangle the puck back along the half wall in his own end, putting an exit feed to Hendrix Lapierre.
This time, because of the sudden transition, the Jackets weren’t able to get into their neutral zone structure, and Lapierre was able to send Connor McMichael into the Columbus zone with relative ease. McMichael pulled up at the top of the right circle and put the puck on a tee for the late-arriving Carlson, who clapped a hard one-timer to the net. Tom Wilson jumped rope to avoid the drive, simultaneously providing a screen. Carlson’s shot – the Capitals’ first in a span of 14 minutes and 6 seconds of playing time – beat Jackets goalie Jet Greaves at 18:19, and the Caps carried that single-goal lead into the third.
Carlson’s goal was the first of three in a span of just 4 minutes and 55 seconds of playing time.
In the second minute of the final period, Dylan Strome won a right dot draw to Ovechkin in the pocket, who settled it and buried his 899th career goal at 1:36 of the third, doubling the Caps’ lead.
The Caps have been running that “pocket play” for most of Ovechkin’s career, and both of his two goals this season were scored in that fashion. The first one – a week ago against Minnesota – took one second off the clock. The second one took twice as long; Ovechkin had to settle it before he shot.
“Just trying to win it back as clean as I can,” says Strome. “Obviously, [the Jackets] know that it's going there, or that I’m trying to go there at least. It’s one of those plays that I think we might have had one last year, maybe two, but I think it was one, so just one of those that sometimes you get lucky on, and we'll take it for now.”
The Caps didn't need to get through the neutral zone to score that one.
Sixty-four seconds later, Justin Sourdif netted his first goal as a Capital, beating Greaves on a breakaway on a play that Thompson started, and in which Ryan Leonard sent Sourdif in alone.
“I just saw a fast break,” recounts Sourdif. “I saw [Thompson] just headman the puck, and I tried to get middle ice. And I saw Leno, he saw me, and I was kind of surprised. I thought they were going to have a weak side [defenseman] there, but I ended up on a breakaway, and just tried to make it count.”
Sourdif did that, giving Thompson and the Caps more breathing room.
Columbus finally broke Thompson’s spell when Denton Mateychuk converted a Sean Monahan feed at 10:20 of the third.
Soon after, it appeared as though the Jackets had pulled a goal closer to the Caps, but officials determined that Dmitri Voronkov had kicked the puck in, and the score remained 3-1.
Columbus winger Mathieu Olivier took all the starch out of any comeback hopes his team may have had when he was boxed for a five-minute major for elbowing Caps defenseman Declan Chisholm in the head, putting the Capitals on an all-you-can-eat power play with 7:25 remaining.
Extra-man tallies from Wilson and McMichael accounted for the 5-1 final, enabling the Caps to salt the game away and get ready to face the Senators on Saturday night in the District.
Without Thompson though, the Caps probably don’t prevail in this one. He frustrated the Jackets thoroughly throughout the game, giving the Caps a couple of big points in the front end of a set of back-to-backs.
“Those games are fun,” says Thompson. “They have a lot of skill, like we saw earlier in preseason. They shoot a lot of pucks. From a goalie standpoint, those are easy games to get up for, knowing you see a lot of rubber. And I know they had a decent amount of shots tonight, but I thought the guys in front of me did a good job letting me see everything tonight.”
