The Washington Capitals might not have gotten off to the best start against the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, but they managed to get their skates under them and complete the comeback in overtime. Goals from Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson (on the power play no less) evened things up, and it was Jakob Chychrun who found the back of the net at 3-on-3 to seal the deal.
Tom Wilson (1G, 2A) was the key to Washington’s victory last night, so it’s only fitting that he was the guy that started the play on the overtime winner. Wilson was out on the ice with Chychrun and Alex Ovechkin as the second OT trio. He carried the puck into the offensive zone and drove hard towards the net before looping behind Andrei Vasilevskiy, pulling all of the attention to himself when he emerged beneath the left faceoff circle. This allowed Chychrun to position himself opposite Wilson on Vasilevskiy’s left without a Tampa player noticing. Wilson fed a perfect pass across the slot to Chychrun, who tapped it in around Vasilevskiy’s left skate.
Wilson factored into all three of Washington’s goals last night—he assisted on both Protas and Chychrun’s goals, and he scored the Caps’ first power play goal of the season. Dylan Strome said it best in his postgame interview with Al Koken: “When [Wilson’s] going, we’re all going.” Chychrun was also singing Tom’s praises after the game:
Up next for the Capitals: a date with the Wild at Capital One Arena on Friday, October 17 at 7 PM.