Harry Lichtman
The Washington Capitals (7-2-0) put up a dominant third period en route to their seventh victory. They finished with five goals as they beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1 in Nationwide Arena on Friday night.
The score was 0-0 for the first half of the contest until John Carlson put the Capitals up 1-0 late in the second period.
Washington then went on to score four more goals in the third period. Alex Ovechkin scored career goal No. 899 and Justin Sourdif recorded his first tally with the Capitals.
Then, Washington went on a five-minute power play and added two more goals courtesy of Tom Wilson and Connor McMichael.
The Capitals will look to sweep the back-to-back when they return home to host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Capital Analysis
Both teams generated tons of chances in a scoreless first period. However, Washington recorded only one shot for the first 14 minutes of the second period.
That all changed when Carlson attempted a long range shot through traffic and past Jet Greaves for the first tally of the night. Carlson has now extended his point streak to five games.
Then, the third period fared even better for the team. While in the offensive zone, Dylan Strome won a faceoff as Alex Ovechkin fired away for his second goal of the season.
More importantly, that’s career goal No. 899 for Ovechkin as he is now only one goal away from 900. It would be fitting for The Great 8 to reach that milestone in his 1500th game on Saturday. Additionally, Ovi now has 336 career third-period goals, tying him with Wayne Gretzky for most in NHL history.
One minute after the Ovechkin tally, Logan Thompson passed the puck to Ryan Leonard, who found Justin Sourdif as he went on a breakaway. Sourdif’s shot originally hit the post but the puck bounced off Greaves into the net for his first Capitals goal.
The Blue Jackets then cut the deficit to 3-1 thanks to a goal from Denton Mateychuk. Columbus then made it 3-2 with Dmitri Volonkov scoring. However, Volonkov’s goal was overturned when the replay showed he kicked the puck into the net.
Still up 3-1, the Caps went on a five-minute power play after Declan Chisholm took a shoulder to the face from the Blue Jackets’ Mathieu Olivier.
Many thought that this would be the moment where Ovi scored No. 900, but that wasn’t the case in the end. Instead, Tom Wilson recorded his team-leading fifth goal of the season while Connor McMichael scored for the first time this year.
With those two power-play goals, Washington has now scored on the man advantage in five straight games.
Capitals Report Card
Team: A
The team showed flashes in the opening period, until they only generated one shot for a majority of the second. That is until John Carlson opened the floodgates and didn’t stop there. In addition to the five goals, the Caps finished with 30 total shots.
John Carlson: A
Carlson’s second-period goal opened the floodgates for more. He also assisted Tom Wilson for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
Alex Ovechkin: A
Turns out Ovechkin still has gas in the tank. Ovi scored off the faceoff in the third and came close to scoring No. 900 on the extended power play. The 40-year-old finished with three shots on the night.
Hendrix Lapierre: A
Moving from center to the wing has worked wonders for Lapierre. He generated five shots and recorded an assist on the Carlson tally.
Logan Thompson: A
Thompson was phenomenal between the pipes once again. He made some gnarly kick-out saves and stopped 34 of 35 shots that went his way. In addition, he picked up an assist on Sourfif’s first Washington goal.
Jakob Chychrun: B
Though he didn’t record any points, Chychrun generated a lot of pressure on Greaves and led the team with six shots. He also finished with a plus-minus of 1.
