Both the Caps and Senators desperately needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Granted, hope is really all either team has at this point, with both teams having a less than 10% chance to make the postseason…but that didn’t stop these two teams from coming out to play hard, and the Caps walked away with the win.
Let’s take a closer look at the eventual game-winner, courtesy of Tom Wilson.
The Caps were up 1-0 with just a couple of minutes left in the second period. With time in the zone, the puck came around to Trevor van Riemsdyk along the wall. He won the battle and made a nice backhand pass to Aliaksei Protas in the left circle. Protas then fed it low to Pierre-Luc Dubois, who got it back to van Riemsdyk at the point, who made another great pass to Tom Wilson at the right dot.
Wilson looked like he was about to send it to Dubois into the slot, but with four players around him he changed his course of action. Instead he quickly turned his blade over and ripped a shot over the goalie’s shoulder. If the goalie was centered to the shot, he might have stopped it – but because of Wilson’s fake pass to the slot, the goalie was leaning that direction and it left just enough space for Wilson to score his 25th goal of the season:
The goal was a goal that Caps need a bit more of, from Wilson (and the team’s other big guns)…it would be nice if he and his compatriots were starting to heat up, even if it may be too late. Next up, they face the New Jersey Devils Friday night.