The Washington Capitals put a six spot on the Florida Panthers, securing a 6-3 victory over the Atlantic Division leaders on Saturday evening. The win gave the Caps three wins in three games against the Cats this year by a combined 16-7 score.
Great game, especially the way they shut things down in the final two periods.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Washington Capitals on 2025-03-22: pic.twitter.com/xRZKRPmMDz
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) March 22, 2025
- After the wild 3-3 first period, the Panthers were up 5-3 in five-on-five high-danger chances. The Capitals responded by limiting them to just three for the rest of regulation while posting seven of their own. They didn’t sacrifice any offense to lock the game up defensively, which is super positive to see.
- Spencer Carbery mentioned this in his postgame victory speech, but 13 different Capitals players got on the scoresheet. Alex Ovechkin, who has turned into an assist god recently, Connor McMichael, Martin Fehervary, and Tom Wilson all recorded two-point games.
- Logan Thompson recovered from a very shaky first period to secure his 31st victory of the year, improving his record to 31-4-5 with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage. Per MoneyPuck, he saved 0.87 more goals than expected, far better than poor Vitek Vanecek, who allowed 3.19 more goals than expected.
The Capitals have scored six or more goals in a game a League-leading 13 times this season.
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) March 23, 2025
- The Capitals were absolutely dynamite with Rasmus Sandin on the ice at five-on-five. They scored four goals, allowed none, and had positive differentials in scoring chances (+3) and high-danger chances (+5). Sandin also delivered the tremendous outlet pass that led to the Capitals’ third goal.
- Anthony Beauvillier scored that goal, adding to his superb start with the Caps. I went more into Beauvi’s dominant overall impact with the club since they acquired him in a postgame post, but in this game alone, he notched his fourth point (2g, 2a) in seven games for Washington, recorded four shots on goal, five individual shot attempts, five individual scoring chances, three individual high-danger chances, and three hits.
- Dylan Strome scored his 23rd goal of the season, his 200th career point as a Capital. The marker was also his 68th point (23g, 45a) of the year, setting a new career high in 70 games after he posted 67 points (27g, 40a) in 82 games last season. Strome has now posted three consecutive new career highs in single-season scoring in his three seasons with the Capitals. What a signing.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-Reference, NaturalStatTrick, and HockeyStatCards.
