The Washington Capitals faced off against the Calgary Flames last night, hoping to bounce back after a rough showing in Boston on Saturday. This was their second game since the trade deadline, which saw both Nic Dowd and John Carlson move out west. The Caps have a few new faces in their locker room though, with defenseman Timothy Liljegren and center David Kampf coming to DC at the deadline. Neither of them were in the lineup last night, though—Coach Carbery wants to give Liljegren a bit more time to adjust to the new system, and Kampf is reportedly dealing with some visa issues.
The Caps got off to an excellent start last night, dominating play in the first period and taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. The second period, however, was all Flames, and the game was all tied up after three Calgary goals in less than three minutes. It all came down to the third period, in which the ice was tilted back in Washington’s favor. The Capitals scored four more goals in the final frame, but they only needed one more—courtesy of Connor McMichael on the power play—to seal the win. Let’s unpack it…
The Caps got their third power play chance of the evening when Kevin Bahl was called for high-sticking Alex Ovechkin with 10:38 to go in the frame. With about 30 seconds to go on the man-advantage, the Caps got a good look or two with a flurry down in front of Devin Cooley’s net. With Cooley covering Aliaksei Protas to his right and Ethan Frank right in front of him, no one was paying attention to Alex Ovechkin to Cooley’s right. Ovechkin had a wide open net to work with, but he couldn’t get control of the puck and instead it looked like Blake Coleman would have a chance to clear it. He tried to thread his clearing attempt between McMichael in the right circle and Rasmus Sandin just below the middle of the blue line, but McMichael was able to jump and intercept it. The puck was only on McMichael’s stick for a split second, but that was all it took to snipe it top corner over Cooley’s right shoulder.
After a brutal second period power play opportunity for the Caps that saw Calgary find the back of the net twice in 1:16, this goal had to feel extra good for everyone involved. It was also probably a great feeling for Connor McMichael, who hit the 10-goal mark this season with the tally. He scored 18 goals in 2023-2024 and 26 goals in 2024-2025, so to only have eight on the season coming into tonight was likely weighing on him a bit. He earned first star of the night honors at Capital One Arena (and Player of the Game over here at the Rink), and it was well deserved.