The Washington Capitals wrapped up their season series with the
San Jose Sharks on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena. The Caps fell behind,
allowed the Sharks to take a two-goal lead twice, including on an empty net
goal with one minute left in regulation, but then put on as unbelievable a
finish as the franchise has ever seen, scoring two goals in the last 47 seconds
of regulation to tie the game, then winning it in overtime, 5-4.
First Period
The Caps had the best chance early on when Jakub Vrana beat
Sharks goalie Martin Jones in the eighth minute of the contest, but his shot
found the post and rattled out to leave the game scoreless. It would be the high point of a first period with
chances that were not converted that ended scoreless.
-- San Jose had a 13-10 edge in shots and a 24-19 advantage
in shot attempts.
-- Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with three shots on goal; no
other Cap had more than one.
-- Garnet Hathaway was credited with three hits, half the
Caps’ total for the period.
Second Period
Just over a minute into the period, San Jose appeared to get
the game’s first goal when Barclay Goodrow redirected a shot down and to the
right of goalie Braden Holtby’s right pad.
However, the goal was immediately washed out by the referee, who ruled
that Goodrow’s stick was above the crossbar when he made contact with the puck.
San Jose did strike first after Richard Panik was sent to
the penalty box for hi-sticking. Joe
Thornton controlled the puck deep in the corner to Holtby’s right. He deked defenseman Nick Jensen to the ice,
circled in, and then found Evander Kane for a one-timer from the edge of the
left wing circle to make it 1-0, 6:25 into the period.
The lead lasted barely a minute. Brendan Leipsic outraced Marc-Edouard Vlasic
to a loose puck along the right wing wall, and Leipsic flicked into the middle
for a Nic Dowd one-timer that beat Jones at the 7:29 mark to tie the game.
The fourth line continued to drive action, Garnet Hathaway drawing
a slashing penalty from Kane to put the Caps on a power play at the 7:56 mark.
The Caps failed to convert, and it cost them.
Logan Couture fed Kane coming out of the box and cut in front of him to
create a screen in front of Holtby. Kane
snapped a shot through that screen to beat Holtby past his right pad to make it
2-1, Sharks, 10:06 into the period.
Kane completed the hat trick, converting another power play
chance. With Radko Gudas off for
slashing, Erik Karlsson sent a drive that caromed off the shin of Garnet Hathaway
right onto Kane’s stick. He wasted no
time in rocketing a shot through Holtby to make it 3-1, 16:49 into the period.
The Caps inched to within a goal on some sloppy play by the
Sharks behind their own net. T.J. Oshie
muffled a lazy attempt by Vlasic to move the puck along the end boards, circled
out from behind the net, and found Jakub Vrana all alone in the right wing
circle. Vrana had time and space to pick
his spot, and he dialed up and snap shot under the crossbar to make it 3-2 at
the 18:42 mark.
The Caps had a chance in the dying seconds of the period,
Evgeny Kuznetsov on a breakaway down the left side. Cutting to the net, he tried to curl the puck
between his legs and wrong-foot a shot on Jones’ blocker side, but Kuznetsov
lost control of the puck before he could attempt the shot. The teams went to the locker room with the
Caps down a goal, 3-2.
-- The Caps had a 12-11 edge in shots on goal for the
period, but San Jose had a 22-17 advantage in shot attempts.
-- Nick Jensen led the Caps in ice time through two periods with
15:57, 9:04 of that coming in the second period.
-- Jakub Vrana (three shots, two misses) and Radko Gudas
(two shots, two blocked shots, one miss) led the Caps with five shot attempts
apiece through two periods.
Third Period
Nic Dowd made his way to the penalty box in the fifth minute
of the period for sending the puck off the rink from the defensive end. San Jose did not score, but the Caps could
not find the equalizer, either.
The teams continued back and forth for most of the period,
the Caps unable to find the tying goal and the Sharks unable to put things
away. San Jose did get insurance late
with an empty netter with one minute left to make it 4-2, but the Caps got it
back immediately when Vrana was left alone between the hash marks to tale a
pass from Lars Eller and beat Jones to the glove side with 47 seconds left.
The Caps found a way to tie the game in the waning
seconds. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny
Kuznetsov worked the puck back and forth along the right wing wall, Kuznetsov
ending up with it in the corner. He sent
a no-look wrap-around pass to T.J. Oshie in the right wing circle, and Oshie
one-timed the puck past Jones to tie the game with 15 seconds left in
regulation.
Overtime
The Caps needed two minutes to end it. Braden Holtby, who had two superb stops in
the extra session, calmly sent a pass from his crease up along the right wing
side and off the wall, where John Carlson took it in stride. Carlson circled up ice and into the offensive
zone with Lars Eller on a developing 2-on-1.
Carlson sent the puck across, Eller fished it out of his skates, and he
snapped a shot past Jones to send the Caps faithful home in a happy, if
surprised, frame of mind in the 5-4 win.
Other stuff…
-- What a finish.
After scoring two goals on their first 26 shots in the first 59:13, the
Caps scored three goals on three shots in 2:48 to win it in overtime.
-- Goalie Braden Holtby earned the second assist on the
game-winning goal. It was his first
point of the season and 11th career point for the Caps.
-- T.J. Oshie’s game-tying goal was the Caps’ sixth at
6-on-5 this season, tying them with Florida and Buffalo for the league lead (edit: the Caps had two 6-on-5 goals, giving them seven, most in the league)
-- Jakub Vrana had two goals, his eighth career two-goal
game.
-- T.J. Oshie had a two-point game (1-1-2), extending his
points streak to three games.
-- Lars Eller had a two-point game (1-1-2), his fifth of the
season and first on home ice.
-- Vrana and Dmitry Orlov led the club with four shots
apiece; John Carlson had seven shot attempts to lead the team.
-- The teams finished even in shots on goal with 29 apiece;
the Sharks led in shot attempts, 62-52.
-- Per NBC Sports Washington, this was the first time in
franchise history that the Caps won a game when trailing by two goals in the
last minute.
-- That was the first home game this season in which Braden
Holtby allowed more than three goals and won.
In the end…
This game will not go into the annals of the best games played
by the Caps from a purist’s standpoint.
But it put on display the team’s veteran makeup, constantly pushing,
even when down two goals; and it illustrated Yogi Berra’s timeless wisdom that “it’s
not over ‘til it’s over.” Take away what
you will from this game, and it was frustrating, annoying (that Kane fellow),
depressing at points. But for 2:48 at
the end of the game, it was quite a thrill ride of the sort that can serve to
shake the Caps out of their recent doldrums and back on the path of dominance
they have displayed for most of the season.