The Washington Capitals ended the Ottawa Senators’ three-game win streak to win their own third game in a row on Thursday night. The game was as low-scoring as you can get as Washington pulled out a 1-0 overtime victory.
This game looked like it was headed in a poor direction in terms of five-on-five play, but the team rescued things with their third-period effort.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-01-16: pic.twitter.com/h9wQPJ8MHE
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) January 17, 2025
- While the Capitals did show signs of some of the poor play they were showcasing before their recent win against the Anaheim Ducks, their defensive effort kept them above water at five-on-five. During the second period, a frame in which they seemingly couldn’t get out of their own way, they did not give up a single five-on-five high-danger chance. When they’re playing poorly, bearing down defensively like that will be able to get them through games.
- Logan Thompson was the club’s best player on the ice, though. He won his 20th game of the season, improving to 20-2-3 on the season with a 2.23 goals-against average, a .924 save percentage, and now two shutouts in a row. He added another 2.07 goals saved above expected to his season ledger, moving to 23.27 on the year. Only Thompson and Connor Hellebuyck (28.15) have more than 20 among all NHL goaltenders.
- The other hero of the game was Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin potted his 874th career goal in overtime, moving 20 shy of Wayne Gretzky for a share of the NHL’s all-time goals record. The marker was also his first against Leevi Meriläinen, moving him past Jaromir Jagr for the most goalies ever scored on (179).
The first-place Capitals will enter Saturday's game at @CapitalOneArena against the Pittsburgh Penguins on a nine-game point streak (6-0-3) and an 11-game home point streak (8-0-3).
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) January 17, 2025
- Rasmus Sandin provided the primary assist on Ovechkin’s tally, and the Capitals were superb with him on the ice overall. During his five-on-five minutes, they held positive differentials in shot attempts (+3), scoring chances (+4), and high-danger chances (+3).
- Pretty evident that Connor McMichael is in a rut right now. He has not scored a goal in his last six games and has not recorded more than two shots on goal in a game since December 20.
- Ethen Frank saw his three-game point streak to start his NHL career end after only skating 6:52 of ice time in the win. All three of Washington’s skaters on the third line played less than 10 five-on-five minutes. Frank played the least on the team, Taylor Raddysh was second-least (7:34), and Lars Eller was third-least (8:54).
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
