Say what you want about this season, but for being terrible in goal differential and voted to not make the playoffs in the pre-season this team just won’t quit!
With two massive points up for grabs in Washington your beloved Capitals anchored down and grinded out a gritty 4-3 OT win against the Red Wings.
By securing the win it allows the Caps to remain in the second wild-card playoff position and increases their lead over the Red Wings to 2 points while also having a game in hand.
As it stands today here is what the standings look like:
After an uneventful 1st period that only had 7 shots on goal per team, things got active in the 2nd. It took the Caps 11 minutes for the Red Wings goalie to make a save that is inexcusable.
Early into the 2nd Nic Dowd got things going on the score sheet who snuck his way alone in between the circles and ripped a wrister blocker side to give the boys the 1-0 lead.
This was Dowd’s 9th of the season, and all his goals have been game-opening goals.
Detroit answered not long after with one of their own on a 3-2 rush where the Cap’s D left the crashing Alex DeBrincat wide open for the easy tap in goal making it a 1-1 game.
Then in the remaining seconds of the 2nd with the Wings on the power-play sent a barrage of shots at Lindgren who was able to make a couple great saves, but as Lindgren was laying on his side the puck squeaked out and David Perron was able to send the puck home to give the Wings the 2-1 lead going into the 3rd and final period.
Then 35 seconds into the 3rd Connor McMichael tied the game at 2 a piece with a nifty stuff below the goal line to beat the sleeping Wings tender.
This was McMichael’s 17th of the season and now has scored 3 goals in his last 4 including a total of 8 points.
Then a Carlson point shot off an offensive faceoff win Dylan Strome back handed a juicy rebound to give the Caps the 3-2 lead in the 3rd.
14 of Strome’s 24 goals have come in the 3rd period talk about clutch, and also this goal marks his new career high.
With 5 minutes to go the Red Wings were able to tie the game off the stick of Showtime Patty Kane who was left alone in between the face off circles and smoked the puck past Lindgren.
Then came overtime and you guessed it Dylan StroTIME said game set match after a drop pass to Carlson who then snuck the pass between two defenders to a wide open Strome who beat the Wing’s goalie off the backhand to give the Caps the 4-3 W!
I feel like a broken record at this point when talking about Lindgren, the dude is just so locked right now and is single handedly keeping us in games and winning us games. If he stays healthy and this hot its giving me playoff hope.
Lindgren had 30 saves in his 21st win of the season and has stopped .65 more goals than expected, he is tied for the 10th best save percentage at .912 and is tied for 2nd most shutouts at 5.
Also the combo of McMichael, Miro, and LaPierre has been great to see their growth and really stepping up into their roles and contributing at a high level.
For the Caps to come out with a win last night after not giving their best effort in the 1st, I will take it and not complain. The Caps play the Wings again on April 9th which I would assume would still have huge playoff implications.
Also, a stat that should be known the Capitals are now 18-2-9 in one goal games this season this shows this team can handle the pressure which will be needed when we make the playoffs.
The Capitals went 3-1 on this homestand in D.C. and now the team will head to Toronto.
The Morning Skate 