More than anything, the Capitals needed two points from Saturday afternoon’s game against the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, and they accomplished that mission, doubling up their host’s depleted lineup by a 6-3 count. A handful of Capitals also reached personal milestones in Saturday’s victory, and the team’s contingent of rookies also stepped forth and delivered in a game of paramount importance in the standings for Washington.
Logan Thompson recorded his 30th win of the season for the second time in as many seasons as a Capital, Tom Wilson became the first Capital not named Alex Ovechkin to record back-to-back 30-goal seasons, and Aliaksei Protas reached the 25-goal plateau for the second straight season. Ryan Leonard scored twice to reach 20 goals on the season, becoming the eighth Washington rookie to do so. And in the third period, Ilya Protas – who picked up a pair of helpers earlier in the game – scored an important power-play goal to record his first National Hockey League goal in his second game.
The Caps’ quartet of rookies – Leonard, Ilya Protas, Cole Hutson and Justin Sourdif – combined for three goals and eight points to help Washington claim two points in what was a must-win game.
“I would say that experience is one thing, but them providing what they’re doing right now for our team is invaluable,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “They’re making huge plays in huge moments that are helping us win hockey games. It’s great experience for them individually, but it’s also a huge help to our team right now because they’re playing a real high level.
“And Pro – that is, Little Pro, just to be clear – in his second game in the National Hockey League, just a bunch of plays he makes tonight both with and without the puck, not just talking about the offensive stuff, he obviously scores a huge power-play goal.”
Following a scoreless and penalty free first frame in which Washington limited the Penguins to a single shot on net – and none in the final 14 minutes and 53 seconds – the two teams combined for seven goals in the middle frame, all of them coming at even strength.
The scoring started in the second minute of the second period when Aliaksei Protas netted his 25th goal of the season at 1:39 with help from Wilson and Ilya Protas.
Pittsburgh responded less than half a minute later, scoring 10 seconds after Washington was guilty of icing the puck. The Pens won the offensive zone face-off, and Ryan Shea fed former Capital Anthony Mantha, who bit the hand that once fed him with a shot from above the left circle at 2:05, a mere 26 seconds after the Protas goal.
Pens goalie Arturs Silovs made a nifty stop on Ilya Protas’ shot from the slot to keep the game even early in the second, but Leonard converted a Pierre-Luc Dubois feed at the back door at 6:02, a goal that required video review to confirm that Silovs’ glove hand was entirely behind the goal line when he snared Leonard’s shot.
“It was kind of a weird play,” recounts Leonard. [Connor McMichael] chipped it out to Dubie, and it kind of got stuck on the wall, and he got nervous for a second that we don't have that 2-on-1. And Dubie makes a hell of a play and gets it to me, and I saw [Silovs’] glove right across the line, and I looked right at the ref, and he waved no goal. And I was 110 percent [sure] that it was over the line.
“So, that was a good feeling, and especially right when you get back to the bench and they say it's over the line, it's a good feeling.”
Dubois was also injured on the scoring play; he went careening into the back wall after dishing to Leonard, and he did not return to the game.
Just over two minutes later, the Caps pushed their lead to 3-1 when Wilson whipped home a shot of an Ilya Protas shot at 8:08, the brothers Protas each collecting an assist.
Ovechkin has had 20 seasons of 30 or more goals, but aside from him, Wilson is now the first Caps player to have successive 30-goal campaigns since Alexander Semin.
“It's really, it's really tough to score,” says Wilson. “And you can never take for granted pulling on a sweater. You never take for granted scoring a goal, you never take for granted scoring 30; it's obviously a special feeling.
“And I truly believe it's just from playing with a lot of good players. [T.J. Oshie] always had a joke, and I use it now: a lot of empty nets. Guys find you in good spots, and you just tap it in. It's a good feeling with all the talent that's come through this organization and helped me get there.”
Just after the midpoint of the middle period, the Caps were again guilty of icing the puck, and the Pens again made them pay, doing so in just eight seconds when Noel Acciari buried the rebound of an Elmer Soderblom shot at 11:47 to trim the lead to 3-2.
Only 11 seconds later, a trio of Washington rookies combined to restore that two-goal cushion with a goal off the rush. Sourdif gained the zone and fed Hutson in the middle of the ice. Hutson carried almost to the paint before firing a shot that Silovs stopped, and then Leonard found and deposited the rebound to make it 4-2 at 11:58.
With just over five minutes remaining in the second, the Caps were beneficiaries of the game’s first power play. The Caps had the puck in Pittsburgh’s end for most of the two minutes, and that bit them when Shea sprung veteran Kevin Hayes out of the box on a breakaway and he beat Thompson from the left dot to make it 4-3 at 16:50.
Just ahead of the five-minute mark of the third, Thompson made one of his best stops of the game when he flashed the leather to deny Rickard Rakell’s rip from the slot to protect the slim lead. With 11 goals in his previous 11 games, Rakell entered Saturday’s contest as one of the hottest shooters in the League.
Seconds after that big save, the Caps lost another stalwart when Rasmus Sandin became entangled with big Pens winger Justin Brazeau after a face-off in Washington’s end. The blueliner had to be helped off the ice and he did not return. Washington played with 11 forwards and five defensemen the rest of the way.
Brazeau was boxed for an unrelated infraction later in the same shift, and the Caps restored their two-goal lead on the ensuing power play.
After picking up a pair of assists in the second period, Ilya Protas scored his first NHL goal on the power play at 5:56 of the third period, tucking a rebound of Hutson’s wide shot through Silovs’ legs to make it 5-3.
In two NHL games, the younger Protas now has one more power-play goal than his big brother does in 319 contests.
“I heard about this,” smiles Ilya Protas, asked if he knows how many extra-man tallies his big brother has. “But that’s a good stat, to score that many goals at 5-on-5.”
After Thompson thwarted Mantha’s bid for a second goal on a penalty shot just ahead of the midpoint of the period, Ovechkin scored an empty-net goal – No. 32 on the season and No. 929 of his NHL career – to account for the 6-3 final.
The Penguins played a video tribute to Ovechkin and the rivalry he and Pens captain Sidney Crosby have had over the last 21 seasons at a television timeout in the second period.
“It was nice,” says Ovechkin. “It was a show of respect. All the time we spend on rivalries in the playoffs and regular season, it shows respect.”
The two teams tangle again in Washington on Sunday, another must win contest for the Caps in a game in which the Pens are likely to dress a much more representative lineup. Thompson faced only a dozen shots in Saturday’s game, but Carbery stopped short of anointing him as Sunday’s starter. And there’s no early word yet on the statuses of Dubois and Sandin.
“We’ll find out more tonight,” says Carbery. “I’ll talk to [director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer Jason Serbus] and that, so I’ll give you and update [Sunday].”
