Last night’s game was pure chaos in the best possible way. 10 goals, 11 penalties, and lots of chaos between two teams who have played their entire season series over the last two months. Thankfully for the Caps – and their meager playoff hopes – they ended up on the right side of the chaos, picking up a crucial two points over the red-hot Flyers.
There was a lot going on in this one, so let’s just talk about the captain and his two goals, because…why not?
Alex Ovechkin’s first goal of the night came in the dying minutes of the first period, with the Caps up 1-0 courtesy of Tom Wilson’s opening strike. It was the perfect example of “go to the net and good things will happen”, as a nice play from Connor McMichael set up the initial shot by Matt Roy. Dan Vladar made the first stop, but Ovechkin was there – evading three Philly defenders, no less – to clean up the rebound:
That goal went into the books as Ovechkin’s 30th of the season, the 20th time in 21 seasons that he’s crossed the 30-goal mark – which is absolutely ludicrous (as is the fact that the lone season he didn’t hit that mark was the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, when he still managed to put up 24 goals in 45 games).
But he wasn’t done – he still had a game-winning goal to score.
Up by a goal yet again, this time early in the third period, the Caps won an offensive-zone draw and established their cycle game to perfection. A point shot by Jakob Chychrun got knocked down in the slot by Jamie Drysdale, but the rebound off of Drysdale ended up on McMichael’s stick. McMichael then made a quick, beautiful pass across to Ovechkin, who was crashing the net, and made a diving shot past Vladar for the team’s fifth goal of the night:
An empty-netter by Tom Wilson would seal the deal, and the Caps would go on to a well-deserved victory. Another big night for the big man, a nice job by McMichael for two pretty slick setups, multipoint nights for a number of dudes…solid, solid win for the team.
Next up, another Metro date (get used to that the rest of this month) as the Caps head up to Newark for one last meeting with the Devils.
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