A TWO-Point Night: Washington Capitals -- Game 58: Capitals 5 - Sharks 1

Since NHL.com went dark in providing their game sheets and highlights, we just have some factoids for you to chew on after the thrilling, and quite unexpected 5-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night…

• How good was the Capitals’ defense/goaltending in this game?  This was only the second time this season that San Jose was held to one goal on home ice and the first time since they dropped a 4-1 decision to Columbus on November 1^st.  It broke a string of 21 games in which the Sharks scored more than one goal on home ice.
• T.J. Oshie had two goals and an assist.  It was on his second goal of the evening that he recorded his 500^th career point.
• Braden Holtby won his 20^th game of the season.  It is his seventh 20-win season for the Caps, second in team history to Olaf Kolzig (nine).
• The Caps took a lead into the first period, a rare occurrence for a visitor to San Jose.  It was only the 14^th time that the Sharks trailed at the first intermission on home ice this season.  They are now 4-9-1 in those games.
• Tom Wilson set a career high with an empty netter at the end, the 15^th goal he has this season (in 39 games), surpassing the 14 he had (in 78 games) last season.
• Wilson had a two-point night, giving him six for the season and 19 for his career, tying Joel Ward and Justin Williams for 13^th place on the all-time franchise list.
• Alex Ovechkin had a goal to get him to 39 for the season.  His next goal will make him only the fourth player in NHL history with at least ten 40-goal seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky (12), Mario Lemieux (10), and Marcel Dionne (10).
• Ovechkin added an assist to give him 17 multi-point games this season, tops on the club.
• Oshie had a three-point night, making him the fifth Capital to reach 10 multi-point games this season.
• Jakub Vrana had a goal and an assist, giving him eight multi-point games this season, sixth-most on the club.
• Add Nicklas Backstrom to the multi-point parade.  Two assists gave him 12 multi-point games this season.  He has 228 in his career, fifth-most in the league since he entered the NHL in 2007-2008. 
• The two assists gave Backstrom 632 for his career, tops in the NHL since he entered the league.
• Finally, this was the first time ever in the series history that the Caps defeated the Sharks by more than two goals in San Jose.

In the end…

Good win.  Goooooooooood win.  Reeeeeeeeeally good win.  This is a team that dominates on home ice, and they were wrapped up like a UPS parcel over the last 55 minutes.  And, it was a balanced effort of the sort that the team needs to be consistent and conserve effort.  No one player was called upon to carry too much of the load, and no player obviously played the role of passenger.  This was a game on which the Caps can build.