Ivan Miroshnichenko had one of the best games of his NHL career in the Washington Capitals’ 7-4 victory over the Utah Mammoth on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Russian forward recorded the first multi-goal game of his career. And he did so despite limited minutes.
Miroshnichenko first lit the lamp on his first shift of the game. After former Bears teammate Hendrix Lapierre curled at the top of the right circle, he hit Miro with a pass trailing the play. The 2022 first-round pick then rifled a one-timer that beat Vitek Vanecek clean, giving the Capitals a 1-0 lead 2:07 into the first period.
Miroshnichenko later found paydirt a second time on what turned out to be a huge insurance goal. Putting his head down and skating hard down the left wing, Miroshnichenko drove to the net, and his backhanded centering pass went off Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and in.
The tally gave the Capitals a 6-4 lead with 10:06 remaining in the third period. The extra cushion eventually led to an empty-net Alex Ovechkin goal, which gave the Capitals captain his 34th career hat trick.
The big production came as Miroshnichenko received just 9:45 of ice time — second lowest on the Capitals. He was aided by all three of his shot attempts making it on goal.
“I liked his game a lot,” Carbery said of Miroshnichenko afterward. “Miro takes that puck and he drives that puck low. He doesn’t settle for turning up or sort of just chipping a puck in. He moves his feet. He drives that puck to the crease and throws it, and good things happen when you do that. You take it to a dangerous area, you throw a puck through the crease, and good things happen.”
Two nights later, Miroshnichenko again was a part of the first goal of the game, authoring the primary assist on a Hendrix Lapierre breakaway goal. The Capitals would go on to beat Vegas 5-4 in the shootout. Miroshnichenko received a game-low 7:50 of ice time.
The assist gave Miroshenichenko points in two straight — his third career point streak in three partial seasons in the NHL.
“I think Miro is finding his identity at the NHL level, and so you saw some of it the other night,” Spencer Carbery said after the team’s morning skate on Saturday. “So what does he do? And what is he going to need to do at the NHL level? He’s a goal scorer, he’s going to have to find ways to create scoring opportunities. So, he did that the other night. [Lapierre], great delay. [Miroshnichenko] shoots the puck. It gets through, it doesn’t get blocked, it gets on net, it goes in the net.
“Is that going to happen consistently? Probably not. But what it means is he got a puck to the net there. If it gets saved, now it leads to an [offensive] zone shift. Second part of what he did on his second goal, he moves his feet, he drives the net, he throws a puck across the crease. Does it go in off of Sergachev’s skate, that probably won’t happen a lot of times? Yes, but the process to what he did of driving that puck to the crease and the net created something positive for our group. So, that’s number one.
“And then the second thing is just his ability to become a reliable, solid, understand all the reads, plays, decisions that need to be made consistently shift to shift, and your compete and your physicality and being in the right spot, all of that stuff. For a young player, it’s just so important that you just stay on it with the consistency of it. And that’s what his challenge will be down the stretch here.”
Since being recalled from the Hershey Bears on March 6. Miroshnichenko has three points in three games after being healthy-scratched for eight consecutive contests to start his stint. He will remain in the lineup tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers despite Ethen Frank being healthy from a lower-body injury.
