Facing the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, the Capitals relied on a familiar formula to do something they’ve done with regularity all season, follow losses with wins. Tuesday’s 6-3 triumph over the Panthers lifts raises Washington’s record in games following losses to 15-2-1.
The Caps also extended their home point streak to 14 straight games (10-0-4) with the victory.
Nic Dowd had a goal and a pair of helpers and his goal on a delayed penalty in the third period stands up as the game-winner. That’s where the familiar formula comes in; the Caps and Panthers traded goals for the first 40 minutes before Washington – which entered the game with a dominant 64-32 goal differential in the final frame this season – won it with a strong final frame and a series of timely stops from Logan Thompson.
And against one of the League’s top forechecking teams, the Caps flashed a fair amount of fine forechecking themselves.
“I liked our skating, I liked most of our puck decisions for the most part,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We had some really good sequences where we stopped some pucks; Lars’ [Eller’s] line did a really nice job tonight. [Andrew] Mangiapane, I thought had arguably his best game as a Capital; he was all over the ice tonight. I noticed his speed, not just the goal and the shot.
“I thought the forecheck was effective tonight and helped us be able to generate some solid [offensive] zone time.”
Largely on the strength of its own forecheck, Washington was able to draw a pair of early power play opportunities. Neither of those extra man chances produced anything to speak of, but in the back half of the frame, Dowd’s line staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead on the forecheck.
Caps defenseman Rasmus Sandin put the puck in deep, and eventually Dowd rolled the puck back around to Sandin at the left point. Sandin spotted Mangiapane near the left dot and fed him, and from there, Mangiapane had enough time and space to rip a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky’s earhole on the short side at 14:08.
“Nice pass by Sandy and Dowder to get it going,” recounts Mangiapane. “I just wanted to get a puck to the net, and I’m happy and fortunate that it went in.”
In the final minute of the frame, the Panthers pulled even with a forechecking goal of their own. Jesper Boqvist forced a turnover and fed Sam Bennett in front, and Thompson stopped Bennet’s shot from in tight. But Bennett backhanded the rebound under the bar to square the score at 1-1 with just 29.7 seconds remaining.
Florida went on the power play early in the second period, but it was the Caps jumping back in front on a pretty shorthanded goal. Tom Wilson blunted an Aaron Ekblad play high in Washington ice, allowing Aliaksei Protas to get to the loose puck and carry into Florida ice on a 2-on-1 with Wilson on his left and a forward – Matthew Tkachuk – as the lone man back. From the right circle, Protas issued a sublime backhand feed through the Tkachuck wickets and right to Wilson, who one-timed it home at 1:15, putting the Caps back in front.
“That’s a great play from Pro,” says Wilson. “He is having a heck of a year. I’m really proud of all the work he has put in and he player he is becoming. It’s awesome to see. He is an elite talent now in the League, just a really high IQ and making good plays. It’s fun to be out there with him.”
A tick under three minutes later, the Panthers pulled even once again. Carter Verhaeghe sent Sasha Barkov into Washington ice with a step on Jakob Chychrun, who tried to hassle the big pivot, but to no avail. Barkov’s backhander from the top of the paint made it a 2-2 game at 4:14.
When the Caps beat the Cats 4-1 in Florida on Nov. 25, Eller scored a pair of goals for Washington. He came up with a big individual effort to score the go-ahead goal early in the third, forcing a turnover in neutral ice, and then skating in and scoring a pretty unassisted goal for a 3-2 Caps lead at 2:19 of the third.
Snake-bitten as of late, this one felt good for Eller.
“I’ve had a few breakaways and a lot of good, big chances, so it was good that one finally found the back of the net,” he says. “Just a wobbly puck in the neutral zone, and I tried to jump on it and keep it alive. And all of a sudden, I was alone with the goalie.”
Just under four minutes later, with Thompson pulled for the extra attacker on a delayed penalty, the Caps managed to push their lead to two for the first time. Mangiapane carried from his own end and into Florida ice, through a quartet of white sweaters on the left side. He pulled up and found Dowd driving the net on the weak side and hit his tape; Dowd redirected it to the shelf for a 4-2 Caps cushion at 6:10.
“Typically, I try and get off in those situations, 6-on-5, and let our power play guys come on with that,” says Dowd. “They’re much more apt at probably being in that situation than me.
“I actually asked [Dylan Strome] as I skated by him if I should get off, and he said, ‘Stay.’ Then I watched Mange make a couple of nice plays through the neutral zone and get up the ice. I just drove the net with my stick on the ice, and he found me back door.”
“We did a pretty good job of waiting, and setting it all up,” adds Mangiapane. “I just happened to be out there, saw some ice and wanted to take it. Dowder made a great play driving the net, and had a nice finish on it, top right shelf.”
Because Dowd brought down Bobrovsky in the process of scoring the goal, a kerfuffle broke out and the two sides ended up playing 4-on-4 hockey for a couple of minutes. Less than two minutes later, Tkachuk ripped a rocket to the far side to make it a 4-3 game at 7:46.
Florida kept the heat on, but Thompson kept the puck out. After the Tkachuk goal, he made stellar stops on Boqvist, Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart, respectively, to keep the Cats from coming back on the Caps, as they did in all three meetings between the two teams last season.
Protas relieved some pressure with an empty netter, and then Alex Ovechkin sent the fans home happy, scoring an empty-net goal from the red line with one-tenth of one second remaining on the clock; he even put a move on Rodrigues before firing.
The Caps captain now has 25 goals on the season and 878 for his NHL career. He is now just 17 goals shy of surpassing Wayne Gretzky (894) for the top spot all time.
“Something special is happening,” says Wilson. “The poise for him to fake the shot with three seconds left and then put it in with a tenth of a second left, it’s because it’s Gretzky, I guess. We’ll just keep chasing here, and it’s pretty amazing to see that one go in with that much time left.”
Washington’s win was its second three-goal win over Florida in as many meetings this season; both games were tied headed to the third period. Tuesday’s win snapped the Panthers’ modest winning streak at three.
“The margin for error against two good teams is pretty tight,” says Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “Their guy made some saves. We had two or three guys that had kind of off nights, but other than that, it was a reasonably well-played game.”
