The Washington Capitals and Ottawa Senators seem determined to never play a boring game when the two clash. The final game of their regular-season series was no different, requiring overtime for the third time this season as the Caps saw multiple leads slip away to force the extra frame.
Thankfully the Caps were able to snatch victory from the draws of defeat in this one, doing so somewhat surprisingly in the shootout courtesy of a Dylan Strome goal past Linus Ullmark.
To get to that point, however, they needed to rely, once again, on their penalty killers and their goaltender. Ottawa’s power play was particularly powerful last night, firing 20 shots on net (for context, they had just 15 shots at five-on-five/four-on-four) and finding the back of the net with two of those. So watching the Capitals take yet another too many men penalty – courtesy of Aliaksei Protas’s super-casual mosey back to the bench – and doing so in sudden death overtime was a little unsettling, to say the least.
Thankfully the PK, buoyed by Logan Thompson, was finally able to silence the Sens’ power play, killing off the shorthanded chance in overtime and making it to the dreaded shootout. After the first two shooters for each team were silenced, Dylan Strome stepped up for the Caps’ third shot, and did this…
…and then Logan Thompson stared down Claude Giroux and did this:
Was it pretty? No. Well, at least not in the second half. But it accomplished what the Caps needed it to, which was snapping their season-long three-game losing streak.
Next up, a visit to MSG to face the Rangers on Wednesday.