The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets are the best teams in the NHL right now, so naturally last night’s game was going to be close. When these teams met on February 1, it was a one-goal game that needed overtime to decide it, with Winnipeg eventually converting at 3-on-3 to grab the 5-4 OT win.
Last night’s matchup wasn’t as high-scoring with just 5 goals between the two teams instead of nine but it was just as close. This battle between the top teams in their respective conferences also required overtime after Alex Ovechkin tied the game at 2-2 with exactly four minutes left. Unfortunately, the Caps’ rally fell short after the Jets grabbed the extra point 1:28 into overtime courtesy of a Nikolaj Ehlers goal.
3-on-3 overtime always means more open ice, but the Caps got caught in a bad line change on Ehlers’ goal that gave the Winnipeg forward as much room as he wanted and then some. Defenseman Dylan Samberg had the puck behind his own net as the Caps went for the change, and apparently he was the only person to see his teammate Ehlers fly down the wide open right wing. Samberg fed Ehlers the stretch pass on the breakaway, and Ehlers fired a wrister right over Logan Thompson’s blocker to win it.
Credit to Ehlers, this was a beautiful shot that beat Thompson cleanly. The Caps and Jets looked evenly matched for the most part tonight, but it was defensive mistakes and sloppy line changes that cost Washington the extra point.