Until Game Five, two things were true:
- Nic Dowd had never scored a point in the postseason
- The Washington Capitals had never scored on a postseason penalty shot.
On Saturday night, Dowd did what Carpenter, Pivonka, and Juneau could not. He scored the first playoffs penalty-shot goal in Washington Capitals history. And it was gorgeous.
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In the third period, Dowd took a breakout pass from Devante Smith-Pelly for a one-on-none attack. Instead, he got slashed by Dougie Hamilton. Dowd’s shot hit the post, and the officials pointed to center ice for a rare playoff penalty shot and the first of Dowd’s four-year NHL career.
Dowd didn’t look like a rookie. He lifted his left leg, faked once or twice to make goalie Petr Mrazek commit to spreading his legs, then he tucks it into the five hole.
According to Dowd, it’s the first penalty shot he’s converted in his life.
Nic Dowd said he’d taken five penalty shots in his life and missed all of them. Looked pretty good there.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) April 21, 2019
Thanks to the good folks at Capitals PR, we learned that Dowd’s big goal was a first for the team. There had been three failed attempts prior to Saturday.
Previously, the Capitals had three penalty shot attempts, none successful, and that was the first penalty shot since Joe Juneau's attempt against the Pittsburgh Penguins (goaltender: Ken Wregget) on April 24, 1996.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 21, 2019
Congrats to Dowd, and woe to whoever slashes Caps players.
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