The Washington Capitals showed up late against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night, but when they got things going…the party started. Washington used four third-period goals to stun the Wings in the final frame, ultimately securing a 5-2 victory.
Another fun win. How about a bunch more of those, except with no goals for the other team?
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-03-07: pic.twitter.com/UO745C7VKf
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) March 8, 2025
- The first period was a mess, but the Capitals started to take hold of the reins by the end of it. Taylor Raddysh’s first goal in almost 40 games closed the opening frame in a great way, spurring on the team’s domination in the final 40 minutes. The Caps allowed just one Detroit five-on-five high-danger chance in the second and third period combined.
- Aliaksei Protas was the true star of the show, recording three points (2g, 1a) in the win. Big Pro is back on pace for 70 points (33g, 37a) this season. Only 29 players in the NHL have 25 or more goals this season and the Capitals now have three of them. Protas himself has more goals than names like Filip Forsberg (24), Sebastian Aho (24), Brady Tkachuk (24), Connor McDavid (23), Clayton Keller (23), Jack Eichel (20), Tim Stutzle (20), Sidney Crosby (19), and Mitch Marner (19).
- Detroit went 1-for-3 on their power play but also gave up two shorthanded goals to the Capitals. The team’s penalty kill would be unstoppable if the Capitals could just clone another player like Aliaksei Pro…wait a minute.
The Capitals have held their opponents to fewer than 20 shots in four of the last five games.
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) March 8, 2025
- Logan Thompson has now won two starts in a row after he lost two in a row in regulation. Thompson made 17 stops in what was a bit of a rocking chair game after the first period. Per MoneyPuck, he stopped 0.15 goals fewer than expected, which just means he did pretty much everything he should have on an average night.
- Very quiet night for Alex Ovechkin, at least for his standards. The Great Eight recorded just one shot on goal, six individual shot attempts, one individual scoring chance, and one hit in 16:58 of total ice time.
- The two birthday boys got on the scoresheet. Dylan Strome, 28, recorded his 44th assist of the season, extending his point and assist streak to three games. Rasmus Sandin, 25, grabbed an assist on Raddysh’s goal, his 23rd point (4g, 19a) of the season, which ties his total from last season (3g, 20a) in five fewer games.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
