Even through illness and injury, the Washington Capitals were able to get a needed win on an evening when it didn’t seem possible.
The Caps opened slow with the first strike from Carl Söderberg on the Avalanche side in the first 1:08. After a quick first period, the game was saved by a Devante Smith-Pelly goal with the assists from Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom. Then it was only a matter of time until we saw captain Alex Ovechkin score a goal for the Capitals on a lovely wrist shot to carry them into the third period up 2-1. With 2:44 left in the third period, the Avs tied it up. With 1:09 left in the final period, DSP drew a holding call to bring the Caps to the power play and guess what? We head to overtime and Nicklas Backstrom saved the day.
Caps win 3-2.
- Devante Smith-Pelly scored his third goal of the season and he is now two points away from his 100th NHL career point. Yay for milestones! This was not the first time Smith-Pelly scored a very important goal to tie a game.
- With Holts still sitting out, Pheonix Copley had to take over as goalie for the evening. He looked really great.
- It was very hard to watch Philipp Grubauer on the other side of the ice tonight. Of course, he made his presence known to some of his teammates this evening.
Philipp Grubauer says hi and taps Tom Wilson on the head pic.twitter.com/QDssf9dgQX
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) November 17, 2018
- A fun goalie stat for the kids at home:
Funny stat for tonight’s game: Colorado’s goalie tandem for tonight has 132 starts for the #Caps. The #Caps goalie tandem has 5
— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) November 17, 2018
- Dmitry Orlov took a high stick to the face during the third period and needed to go to the bench for a quick look. The Capitals can definitely afford to lose another guy to injuries. Mhmm sure.
- We don’t deserve Nicklas Backstrom. He won the game this evening with his 8th career overtime game winning goal.
- Tom Wilson had two assists tonight. Maybe he’s feeling really bad and is trying to make up for his behavior. If that’s the case…we accept.
#JoeBSuitOfTheNight #CapsAvs Come for the blue suit with olive strips, stay for the flower-patterned powder blue tie pic.twitter.com/qEp3TypPno
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) November 17, 2018
The Caps will finally have a little bit of time to chill out and hopefully rest some of the injuries currently plaguing the team. It’s off to the French land of problematic decisions! That’s right, the Montreal Canadiens are up next for a Monday night showdown.
