The Caps rode another solid offensive performance to a big win over the Florida Panthers last night, not only extending their current winning streak to four games (and their ninth in the last ten games overall) but successfully completing a sweep of their season series against the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
After a wild first period that saw the two teams deadlocked at three apiece (including a couple of beauties by Connor McMichael and Anthony Beauvillier, and the two teams trading four goals in just over three minutes), it was an explosive start to the second period that set the stage for the Caps’ win over the Cats. That outburst to open the frame marked the point when they not only took the lead but expanded on it – then held it until the end.
And all it took was 59 seconds.
The party got started off the opening faceoff, when Pierre-Luc Dubois wins the draw and kicks it back to Matt Roy. Roy finds Tom Wilson sneaking into the offensive zone, Wilson speeds fast the Florida defense, busting out his patented backhand move to beat old pal Vitek Vanecek.
A simple, set play off the faceoff, executed perfectly, with a nice heads-up pass from Roy to find big #43 and put the Caps up by one.
Now, based on the way the game had been going up to this point, this is where the Panthers would immediately strike back to tie the game…but Dylan Strome was done with that particular pattern, and he didn’t need much time to make sure it came to an end.
This time, the play starts on the rush, with Aliaksei Protas once again proving what an intelligent hockey player he is by carrying the puck into the zone, evading a Florida defender and holding onto the puck just long enough for Alex Ovechkin to get into position. As Dylan Strome heads to the front of the net, Ovechkin fires the puck – not on net, but at Strome, looking for a deflection play. He finds one:
That would be the first of two such assists for Ovechkin, on a day where the Panthers seemed set on not letting him get a clean shot on net. That’s fine, because when they do that, it opens the ice for his linemates – and they’re pretty decent at hockey, as well, as we saw. 5-3 Caps, tennis match over, and the good guys are in control.
They’d stay that way through the end of regulation, getting a little extra insurance courtesy of Andrew Mangiapane (off that aforementioned Ovechkin assist) to finish with a 6-3 final.
Now the East-leading Caps hit the road for two, starting with a huge game against the West-leading Jets in Winnipeg before another tough test in Minnesota.