After another big game, Tom Wilson is among the league leaders in goals. Maybe David Pastrnak was serious after all.
Wilson scored twice against the New York Islanders, both on the power play and at even strength, to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-1 win at UBS Arena.
Wilson’s first strike of the game came on the man advantage after some great passing by Ryan Leonard and Alex Ovechkin.
Leonard, from Nicklas Backstrom’s half-wall area, sent a hard, cross-ice pass to Ovi in the left circle. With everybody expecting the NHL’s all-time goals leader to shoot, Ovechkin dished to Wilson to the left of the net, who deftly deflected the puck past goaltender Ilya Sorokin. The goal put the Capitals up 1-0 with 12:23 remaining in the first period.
“It was a great play by O and by Willie,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said. “I mean, that’s a great touch at the side of the net right there. Sorokin’s probably playing a little bit, maybe further (out) respecting O’s shot in that situation. You go shot-pass down low, and it’s a great touch from Willie there. That was an important goal to get us a 1-0 lead.”
Wilson struck again in the second period after a great individual play by himself and a panic play by Sorokin behind the net.
As the Capitals closed off both walls in New York’s zone, Sorokin attempted a dangerous pass up the middle — Craig Laughlin calls these “pizzas” — to Matthew Schaefer. Wilson, who played coy skating beside the rookie defenseman, turned on the jets and stole the puck, scoring into an empty net.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those in my career on a goalie, you know, turnover up the middle like that,” Wilson said. “So I think I got kind of lucky. I think he was trying to go a little bit further with it, and I just made a bit of a read and got lucky to knock it down. I’ll take it.”
Wilson’s second goal would turn out to be the game-winner. He now has 15 goals in 26 games this season, putting him in an eight-way tie for fifth in the NHL.
NHL goals leaders
As of 11/30/2025 at 4:30 pm
| Rank | Player | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nathan MacKinnon | 25 | 20 |
| 2 | Morgan Geekie | 27 | 20 |
| 3 | Kirill Kaprizov | 26 | 17 |
| 4 | Sidney Crosby | 24 | 16 |
| 5t | Jason Robertson | 25 | 15 |
| Leon Draisaitl | 26 | 15 | |
| Tom Wilson | 26 | 15 | |
| Matt Boldy | 26 | 15 | |
| Brad Marchand | 23 | 15 | |
| Brandon Hagel | 24 | 15 | |
| Bo Horvat | 26 | 15 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 24 | 15 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | 25 | 15 |
Wilson is now on pace for 47 goals, 44 assists, and 91 points, which would all be career highs.
He just missed out on an empty-netter at the end of the game to give him his second career hat trick, though Wilson didn’t mind.
“One hat trick is enough; other than that, you want to get wins,” Wilson said.
Correction: A previous version of this post said Tom Wilson was on pace for over 100 points. Wilson is on pace for over 90 points. We regret the error.
