Saturday night at Verizon Center, Nicklas Backstrom scored his 20th goal of the season, dismissing division rival Philadelphia in overtime with an unstoppable wrist shot. It was beautiful, it was amazing, and it was clutch.
New Caps acquisition Kevin Shattenkirk tallied his first point, the primary assist, on the goal.
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Game over. 15 straight wins at home. New franchise record. #CapsFlyers on @csnma pic.twitter.com/g6Q4f9XJwH
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 5, 2017
2:20 into overtime, Lars Eller drew a holding minor on the Flyers Michael Del Zotto. On the resulting four-on-three powerplay, Shatty found Backstrom along the half wall and the Swedish center took care of the rest.
Backstrom curled and then unleashed this twisted wrister.
“I mean if you look at it early, they’re taking away Shatty and Ovi [on the powerplay] there,” Backstrom said to CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Alan May after the game. “They kind of gave me the shot, plus a really good screen Osh. A little lucky, but I’ll take it.”
This is the fourth time in his career that Backstrom has scored 20 goals. He’s also accomplished the feat in consecutive seasons. Backstrom, arguably the team’s MVP this season, has 65 points in 64 games this season and leads the team in points.
