Stevenson ‘there to support’ Capitals in time of need, gets 1st NHL win

WASHINGTON -- Clay Stevenson planned to make his first postgame phone call Saturday to his father.

What would Stevenson say after being thrown into the deep end up the pool by the injury-depleted Washington Capitals in his second NHL start, an improbable 4-3 overtime victory against the Carolina Hurricanes at Capital One Arena?

“That’s an NHL win, baby,” Stevenson replied after his 19-save performance. “What do you want?”

It was Stevenson’s first NHL win. The 26-year-old was pressed into service with the Capitals top two goalies, Logan Thompson (upper body) and Charlie Lindgren (lower body), out due to injury. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, forward Connor McMichael (upper body) and defenseman Martin Fehervary (personal reasons) also joined Washington’s lengthy list of unavailable players.

Including previously injured center Pierre-Luc Dubois (abdominal and adductor muscle surgery) and defenseman Matt Roy (lower body), Washington (27-22-7) was without its top two goalies, two of its top six forwards and two of its top four defenseman for a pivotal game against Carolina (33-15-6), which is first in the Metropolitan Division. To add an extra degree of difficulty, the Capitals fell behind 3-0 by 4:16 of the second period before rallying with four unanswered goals, capped by Justin Sourdif’s winner at 1:42 of overtime.

Following a 4-3 shootout win at the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, Washington won consecutive games for the first time since a six-game run from Nov. 24-Dec. 3 to climb within four points of the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan and six points of the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“That’s our locker room and that’s the Caps’ resiliency that I’ve grown accustomed to over the last couple of years,” coach Spencer Carbery said. “You can feel it. It feels a little bit different right now with our group; there’s a focus to it. They understand what’s at stake and where we’re at, and I think this is as important of a stretch as we’ve had this season.”

The stretch continues with a chance to pull within two points of the third-place Islanders, who visit Washington on Monday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, MSGSN). Fehervary will likely be back, but it’s unclear if any of the injured players will.

McMichael and Lindgren, who were each placed on injured reserve Saturday, are out through the NHL’s the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, which begins Friday. Dubois also won’t return until after the Olympics, but there’s a chance Thompson and Roy, who are each considered day to day, could be.

Whoever plays Monday must understand there’s little room for error with 26 games remaining.

“We don’t feel sorry for ourselves at any point,” Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “We just continue to push. It feels like we’ve had a lot of adversity throughout the year already. They’re all good learning moments for this group, and we just continue to fight.”

Stevenson knew he’d likely need to start Saturday after watching Lindgren be helped back to the locker room following the shootout victory in Detroit. Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Dartmouth College in 2022, Stevenson made his NHL debut in Washington’s regular-season finale of 2024-25, stopping 33 of 38 shots in a 5-2 loss at the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 17.

There was little pressure on Stevenson then because the Capitals were already locked into the top seed in the East. The stakes were much higher Saturday because of their injuries and the fact they’d gone 8-13-4 in their previous 25 games to fall from first in the Metropolitan to outside the playoff picture.

“You never want to see your teammates go down with injuries, especially your goalie partners and two guys that I like a lot, have become pretty close with in my time here and have mentored me quite well,” said Stevenson, who was 11-8-3 with a 2.57 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 24 games with Hershey of the American Hockey League this season before he was recalled Thursday. “I want to be there to support them, so maybe when stuff like that happens, that they have confidence in me to come in and help out with that.”

So, Stevenson wasn’t happy with himself when Shayne Gostisbehere’s wrist shot from above the left circle floated in over his right shoulder to extend the Hurricanes lead 4:16 into second, a goal he said, “I especially want back.” The Capitals felt they’d played well up to that point, though, and were undeterred.

Hendrix Lapierre’s rebound goal at 7:52 started the comeback. After Dylan Strome went to the net to redirect Aliaksei Protas’ centering feed past Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen at 14:58, the Capitals were suddenly within 3-2.

They kept peppering Andersen with shots and pulled even when Chychrun scored on a wrist shot from between the circles at 13:18 of the third period. The Capitals couldn’t find the winning goal in regulation, though, despite outshooting the Hurricanes 13-5 in the third.

Stevenson did his part by stopping all nine shots he faced after Gostisbehere’s goal.

“We needed someone to step up,” Strome said. “We obviously haven’t had to deal with injuries to our goalies in a long time, and I thought he came in and did a great job.”

Washington’s persistence paid off when Sourdif knocked in his own rebound for the first overtime goal of his NHL career. Stevenson said he blacked out for a moment before he raced out of his crease to join his teammates in celebrating his first NHL win.

“That’s a really special one, especially against that team, against Frederik Andersen, one of my favorite goalies in the NHL,” Stevenson said. “So, yeah, it was incredible. At a loss for words a little bit.”