4 – Number of goals scored in the first minute of a period in last night’s overtime win over the Panthers, one in each of the three frames as well as overtime. This marks just the second time in at least three decades in which a game has had four first-minute goals (the other time being a Detroit-Minnesota game from last season), and the first game during that span in which the four goals were spread out over four different periods.
The Caps opened the scoring with a John Carlson strike just 25 seconds into the first period; in the second, it was the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov scoring 27 seconds in. The third saw Tom Wilson with the game-tying tally a luxurious 44 seconds in… and then it was Wilson again, after just 17 seconds of overtime (and a ridiculous save by Braden Holtby at the other end) for the win.
Wilson’s winner – his first career OT goal in the regular season – was the sixth-fastest overtime goal scored by the Caps in franchise history, and the fastest since Brooks Laich got the winner 12 seconds into OT against Ottawa back in 2011. It was just the seventh time the Caps have scored in overtime in under 20 seconds (the first since Jay Beagle’s GWG back in 2017 over Dallas),