NHL Gamecenter – Corsica – Natural Stat Trick
Now that game was fun. A lot of good, a lot of bad but going on a one game roady in a sleepy barn, the Capitals will take what they can get. They are now on a five game win streak and are looking to keep it rolling. They are also 8-1-1 on the road, which leads the league.
Here’s Thursday night’s plus/minus:
Plus: The Capitals looked down it out after going down 1-3 and playing pretty darn poorly, but fought back, forced overtime and won.
Minus: The first period was really ugly.
And now, this:
10 notes from the game:
2. Unfortunately, soon after, Jonas Siegenthaler took a spill at his own blue line leaving sniper Frank Vatrano in alone who put it six hole on Holtby tying the game.
3. Brett Connolly, who has been given the blessing to be the only player on the Panthers allowed to score, did with a nice tip in front of the net. It was his sixth goal of the season.
4. It was a very ugly first period by the Capitals with little pressure. That poor play continued into the start of the second period where Florida scored in the first minute in the second period.
5. Evgeny Kuznetsov had one of his prettiest assists of the season, if not the prettiest, on the power play goal to Alexander Ovechkin for his 12th goal of the season. He completely sold his shot to the whole Panthers team then got it over to Ovechkin for literally the whole open net to shoot into. He ended the game with three assists.
6. Tom Wilson got a classic “Tom Wilson penalty” in which he did nothing wrong but got called for something. The Capitals killed the penalty, about five seconds of a 5on3, then killed off the next one. The Capitals ended up killing four of five penalties.
7. Ovechkin tied the game with a lucky bounce goal but he deserves all the luck he gets. On the goal Nicklas Backstrom passed Peter Forsberg in points among the Swedish greats.
8. Like the Capitals did earlier, they took two penalties that went back to back. But unlike killing both earlier, the Panthers scored on their second one giving them the lead. It was a bad penalty by Lars Eller on the backcheck.
9. After Ovechkin almost got a hatty early in the third, Wilson was able to tie the game at four with a great deflection. It was his sixth point in the last three games.
10. As wild as this game was it made sense that it would go in overtime. It ended it quickly with an amazing save by Braden Holtby that led to a beautiful goal scored by Wilson assisted by Kuznetsov. That brought Wilson’s point total to seven points his last three games.
Next the Capitals face the Vegas Golden Knights who are always a tough outing. If they pull a first like they did tonight they could be down more than one after the first period. They’ll need a full 60 minutes to walk away with some points.