The Capitals headed up to Ottawa Thursday night for the finale of this long long road trip.
There was a lot of back and forth in the first but ultimately nothing was worth mentioning about the 1st period of play.
The Sens got the scoring going on the power-play deflection goal by Ridly Greig nothing really LT could do with him left alone because Carlson had to play the puck allowing Greig to be left uncovered.
https://x.com/Senators/status/1885135002871947319
Connor McNasty tied the game up soon after just as the power-play was expiring. PLD cycled the puck to the top of the circle drawing the Senator defenders away from McMichael leaving him wide open short side then added some dirty dangles finishing it just above goaltender’s glove, 1-1 ball game.
This was McMichael’s 18th goal and will be joining the 20 goal club soon. This ties his single season career high in goals in 29 fewer games.
It was nice to see McMichael get back on the board since he hasn’t scored since Jan. 4, so lets hope he gets hot.
Pierre-Luc Dubois recored his 30th apple on the goal extending his point streak to 3 games.
Josh Norris was awarded a penlaty shot late in the 2nd and was about to beat LT making it 2-1 in favor of the Sens.
Then again while STILL on the same power-play the Sens caught the Caps crashing the net leaving the points wide open for an easy 2v1 chance where LT made an incredible diving/sliding save, but unfortunalty left a juicy rebound which was hit home by Shane Pinto to give the Sens a 3-1 lead.
Just straight inexcusable giving up two goal on our own power-play!
But from my understanding if the player has to have control of the puck or at least be touching the puck which Norris didn’t do either when he was tackled by Carlson. Still would have been a penalty, but easier to kill in my opinion.
We head to the 3rd period where the Caps went on the power-play again but this time find the back of the net. Dylan Strome ripped it home but doesn’t happen without the beautiful screen job by Wilson the goalie never had a chance, 3-2 Sens.
This was Strome’s 14th power-play goal of the season.
Then with less than 10 minutes remaining the Sens extended their lead to 2 on the power-play via a deflected puck in front by Sanderson, 4-2 Sens.
With 7 minutes left the Caps power-play was about to expire where Protas found an Ovi top of the circle who faked a pass slighty then ripped a wrister past the Sen’s goalie bringing the deficit back to 1, 4-3 Sens.
This was Ovi’s 23rd goal of the season and 876th of his career making him only 19 away from the record.
Then not to long after in a game that felt lost after the two short-handed goals the Caps were able to tie the game up via Dylan Strome who battled out front and was able to find the lose puck and roof it home to tie the game, 4-4.
Stromer leads the Capitals in assists (34) and points (49) and has scored 3 goals in his last two games.
We head to overtime where it ended with just over 3 minutes left where the Caps were all caught battling for the puck on the boards which left Chabot wide open and LT on an island but couldn’t make the save.
Tough game for LT but this loss isn’t on him.
In a game that we should have lost lets being honest getting a point is huge regardless.
It’s hard to win a game when you commit not one but TWO too-many men penalties. Just a lack of communication and awareness.
Overall our power-play was cheeks tonight and needs to be more consistent, but we survived to get a point tonight so lets be fine with that for now.
Capitals finally head home for the first time since Jan. 20 when they take on Winnipeg tomorrow night.
The Morning Skate 