Tuesday’s tilt between the Caps and the Jets in Winnipeg pitted the top teams in each of the NHL’s two conferences, and it turned out to be a prime playoff appetizer. The two heavyweights traded blows and goals for more than 60 minutes, with the Jets ultimately prevailing 3-2 on Nikolaj Ehlers’ goal at 1:28 of overtime.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin mustered the tying tally for his team with exactly four minutes remaining in the third period, tying the game at 2-2, securing a point for his team and pushing his career total to 889, just half a dozen red lights away from wresting the top spot on the NHL’s all-time list away from Wayne Gretzky (894).
“They had us on our heels early,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery, “which is somewhat to be expected, coming on the road in this building. But I felt like we pushed back in the second; [it was] unfortunate to give that one up late, after the kill at the end of the second. We fought in the third; it was a little bit of a chess match, but we continued to push and found the equalizer. I was happy with the way we played.”
Early in the contest, both goaltenders made key stops to keep the game scoreless. After Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck shot down Connor McMichael in a 1-on-1 situation, Caps goalie Logan Thompson denied a Mason Appleton shot from the slot.
But the Jets grabbed an early lead less than a minute after that stop on Appleton.
Mark Scheifele gained the Washington zone and paused up high before teeing up the late-arriving Josh Morrissey for a one-timer from the left point. With Alex Iafallo providing a screen in front, Morrissey’s one-timer found twine behind Thompson for a 1-0 Jets lead at 6:50.
Morrissey’s goal was his third against the Caps this season; he scored twice – including the overtime game-winner – when the two teams met in Washington on Feb. 1.
Late in the first frame, Winnipeg’s Colin Miller was deemed guilty of boarding Andrew Mangiapane along the half wall in the Jets’ end of the ice. But when Mangiapane sprung to his feet and cross-checked the Jets defenseman, the penalties evened up and the two sides skated at 4-on-4.
Less than 15 seconds after exiting the box along with Miller – and in the final minute of the first period – Mangiapane took a return feed from Jakob Chychrun in the slot, and he ripped a one-timer home from the right dot at 19:40, squaring the score at 1-1 just ahead of intermission.
“It was a good play by the guys getting up in the rush; they were out there for a little bit there,” recounts Mangiapane. “It was a good give-and-go there by Chychy, and I’m happy to see that one go in for us.”
Having pulled even in the final minute of the first, the Caps had a couple of chances to grab a lead when they went on the game’s first two power plays in the middle frame. But the Caps weren’t sharp with the extra man, and their extra-man unit came up dry for the ninth straight game (0-for-16).
“Didn't like it at all tonight,” says Carbery of the power play. “So that's what we'll continue to work on. We've got some things to address in there of entry stuff, and then [Ovechkin], we just have to figure some things out there. Because if [Ovechkin] is going to shoot from over there, we need some puck recoveries. Because if it's one and done, and obviously, especially against high caliber goaltenders, like, it's tough for him to score from those situations, I don't care how many power play goals he has in his career from there, it's there, it's hard against a big, quality goalie like Hellebuyck.
“So we’ve got to find some ways to get some puck recoveries. Because if you're one and done on that shot, you only get two shots or two shot attempts on a power play, that's no good. And that's what I felt like it was tonight.”
Winnipeg also had a power play opportunity late in the second. The Jets weren’t able to alter the score on the man advantage either, but they managed to regain the lead in the waning seconds of the middle stanza.
Less than a dozen seconds after Washington completed a successful penalty killing mission, Appleton scored from almost the exact spot on the ice where Mangiapane did so late in the first. With 10.4 seconds left in the second, his wrister caught the far left corner of the cage, sending the Jets to intermission with a 2-1 advantage.
Thompson and the Caps withstood Winnipeg’s early push to expand its lead in the third, and the Caps set about manufacturing the equalizer. Finally, late in the frame, Ovechkin supplied it.
Trevor van Riemsdyk pinched down the right wing wall to keep the offensive zone shift alive, and he won the battle for the biscuit, getting it to a nearby Aliaksei Protas, who spotted Ovechkin with time and space on the weak side, in his left dot office. Protas executed the pass, and Ovechkin whipped a shot past Hellebuyck on the short side to make it a 2-2 game.
With the secondary assist on Ovechkin’s goal, van Riemdsyk reached the 20-point plateau (one goal, 19 assists) for the season, giving the Capitals six defensemen with 20 or more points for the first time in their half century history.
The Caps had the early possession in overtime; they squeezed off four shots without getting one on net. Protas hit the right post with the first try, then P-L Dubois and Ovechkin had shots blocked before Chychrun missed the mark, which gave the Jets possession.
As the Caps hustled to make a change, they apparently botched it; they were going to be assessed a bench minor for too many men if Ehlers hadn’t scored. He took a stretch feed and beat a trio of Caps into the zone, firing a shot to the far left corner to give the Jets a second overtime victory over Washington in as many meetings this season.
Tuesday's loss drops the Caps to 9-1-1 in their last 11 games. They're off to Minnesota next, for a Thursday night date with the Wild in St. Paul.
