The news from Capital One Arena on Tuesday night was mixed; the Caps’ 16-game home point streak and their eight-game overall point streak both came to a halt at the hands of the visiting Calgary Flames, who downed the Caps 3-1 in the first game of a critical six-game road trip.
But the night wasn’t a total loss for a couple of Capitals. Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th goal of the season on a Washington power play in the third period, the 883rd goal of his NHL career. That goal gives The Great Eight his 19th season with 30 or more goals – an NHL record – and puts him a dozen goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky (894) atop the NHL’s all-time goals ledger.
Ovechkin becomes just the fourth player in League history to score as many as 30 goals at the age of 39 or older. Gordie Howe did it three times, and Johnny Bucyk and Teemu Selanne once each.
John Carlson supplied the primary helper on Ovechkin’s goal, extending his assist streak to nine straight games, a career high. Carlson has also tied the second-longest assist streak by a defenseman aged 35 or older; he and Detroit’s Mathieu Schneider each had runs of nine straight games with a helper. Carlson can tie ex-Cap Sergei Gonchar (10 straight games in 2012-13) for the all-time NHL standard in that esoteric category.
Washington turned in an exceptionally flat first frame, and that turned out to be the difference in the contest.
“It was terrible,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “First period was as bad a period as we’ve played all year. We dug ourselves a hole.”
In a first period that had all the flow of a frozen river, the Caps could never find their footing. They were rarely able to sustain any sort of an offensive-zone presence, and as a result, they were limited to just five shots in the first frame, the closest of which came from 34 feet away from the net. Two of the Caps’ first-period shots on net came from the neutral zone; the average distance of their five shots was 63 feet away.
Meanwhile, the plucky Flames took 1-0 lead midway through the first, getting a fortuitous bounce on a goal that had the Caps on the verge of a coach’s challenge. The puck bounded into the Washington net off of the skate boot of Martin Pospisil at 11:47 of the first, so the Caps’ coaching staff was mulling a possible challenge for distinct kicking motion but also because Calgary’s Kevin Rooney checked Nic Dowd into Caps goalie Logan Thompson on the play.
“In retrospect, the way we had it, it was a real 50/50 and probably not going to go our way,” says Carbery. “What looked or gave us the inclination to potentially challenge was there was a little shove on Dowd, so it would have been a matter of did they feel it was significant enough of a shove to where it moves Logan and he can’t make the save on the back side. And the kick was close, too.
“But we felt like at that time, we could fight our way back into the game. But obviously not.”
Before the end of the first, the Flames added to their lead on a beauty of a shot from Matt Coronato. After Coronato was stripped by P-L Dubois in Washington ice, the Caps transitioned to offense. Just as Calgary netminder Dan Vladar set aside Connor McMichael’s shot from the Calgary line, Flames defenseman Kevin Bahl sent a soft feed to space for Coronato, who raced to Washington ice to collect it. From the inside of the right circle and with Thompson above the paint to cut down the angle, Coronato fired a dart to the top left corner for a 2-0 Calgary lead, and the eventual game-winner at 16:42 of the first.
The Caps were better in the second; Dylan Strome had a good look early in the period and Washington lingered longer on its offensive-zone forays, but it could not manage to solve Vladar. On a few occasions, shots off Caps’ sticks would produce rebounds, but Washington was rarely able to get to those pucks ahead of Calgary defenders.
It wasn’t until Washington went on its third power play of the game early in the final period that Ovechkin was able to break the spell, just after a successful entry by Strome on the right side of the ice. From there, Strome went cross-ice to Carlson, who bumped it to Ovechkin at the bottom of the left circle. Ovechkin swept a shot past Vladar on the wide-open short side at 4:52, pulling the Caps within a goal with plenty of time remaining.
“I think [Vladar] was guessing I was going to pass it to [Tom Wilson] out there,” surmises Ovechkin. “I tried to take a shot, and it went in.”
That was as close as Washington would get on this night. Jonathan Huberdeau’s goal at 15:32 restored the visitors’ two-goal cushion and closed out the scoring.
Tuesday’s loss was the Caps’ first regulation loss at home since Nov. 23, a span of 93 days. It was just the second regulation loss for Washington since the calendar flipped to 2025; the Caps hadn’t tasted regulation defeat in any venue in 30 days until Tuesday.
Tuesday’s victory gives the Flames a positive start in the opener of their six-game road trip. Calgary entered the contest one point out of the Western Conference playoff picture. The Flames don’t return home until the March 7, the same day as the NHL trade deadline. This trip may determine whether the Flames are buyers or sellers at the deadline.
“I loved our start,” says Flames coach Ryan Huska. “I thought we had a lot of guys who were courageous tonight with their shot-blocking, I thought our fourth line was good, I thought our goaltending was really good. There was a lot to like tonight. It was a good team game."
