Thompson makes 34 saves, Capitals defeat Senators
Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas also scored for the Capitals (34-27-8), who are 3-1-1 in their past five. They are six points back for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
“I think we kind of just out-battled them,” Wilson said. “We were on our toes. We played hard. We won our battles. We played smart, and we executed well and had good energy. So, it was it was a solid game.”
Ovechkin recorded his 20th career 25-goal season and tied Gordie Howe for the most in NHL history. It was Ovechkin’s 999th career total goal (regular season & playoffs), leaving him one away from joining Wayne Gretzky (1,016) as the only players in League history with 1,000 combined goals.
Tim Stutzle scored the lone goal for the Senators (34-24-9), who had won five of six and remained five points back for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. Linus Ullmark made 21 saves.
“We didn’t like our game but at the end of the day we had a lot of chances, and we could have scored a lot of goals,” Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot said. “You’ve got to give Thompson lots of credit. Played well, made some big saves.”
The Senators outshot the Capitals 16-7 in a scoreless first period.
“I thought [Thompson] was as dialed as I’ve seen him all year long,” Carbery said. “They had a bunch of looks right on top of him, too, a lot of backdoor stuff. The penalty kill (3-for-3) was tremendous tonight and he was a big part of that. … So, he plays a big part in us getting two points tonight, no doubt.”
Ovechkin gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 8:09 of the second period. Rasmus Sandin‘s pass from the right point deflected off Ovechkin’s right skate in the slot and then ramped up off the stick blade of Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub past Ullmark’s blocker.
