Caps extend home series to seven

Washington's 3-2 victory over Nashville on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena was significant for several reasons. Firstly, the victory is the 1000th in the quarter century in which Ted Leonsis has held the majority of the team. Secondly, the Caps have now won seven home games in a row, their longest home winning streak since the second half of the 2017/18 season, six and a half years ago.

Before Wednesday's game, the Caps honored their AHL affiliate Hershey for its two consecutive Calder Cup championships, the 12th and 13th Cup titles in Hershey's storied franchise history and the fourth and fifth titles won during the current collaboration between the two clubs, a period of almost 20 years.

Caps captain Alex Ovechkin scored the game-winning goal at 10:25 of the third period. Ovechkin has scored in five straight games, scoring six goals. With 861 career goals, he is now 34 points away from overtaking Wayne Gretzky (894) at the top of the NHL's all-time goals list.

Ovechkin wasn't the only Capital staying hot; Connor McMichael scored in his fifth straight home game – he has seven goals in that span – and Aliaksei Protas scored in his fourth straight home game. And goaltender Logan Thompson won his sixth straight start, joining Tomas Vokoun as just the second Washington goaltender to begin his career with six straight wins in as many decisions.

“You could feel the desperation in their group during that game,” Caps coach Spencer Carbery said of the Preds, who are trying to get out of an 0-5-0 start to the season. “I thought it was a good hockey game. I think they played well and caused us a lot of problems.”

Wednesday's game saw two teams desperately fighting to recover from defeats in their previous games, and it looked like a junkyard dogfight from start to finish. All five goals came directly from the net, each team finished the night with 34 goals and both teams blocked a combined 39 shots.

“I think it was definitely a dogfight,” said Caps center Dylan Strome, who had a multi-assist game for the fifth time this season and fourth straight. “They saw what their GM said before the game; We knew they would be a desperate team. They spent a lot of money on July 1st and they have some really good players on this team. They're working really hard and obviously they're just not getting the momentum they need at the moment. They have a really talented team and I thought they had some great chances tonight; They hit I don’t know how many posts – three or four – and conceded a goal.”

Two nights after they were sidelined by Los Angeles on just 16 shots – and a day after Nashville GM Barry Despite criticized his club for its poor start to the season – the Preds took an early 1-0 lead against the Caps.

Juuso Parssinen scored at 3:19 of the first period after deflecting a Luke Evangelista shot from the point. At first it looked like Parssinen's stick was too high on the deflection, but he lowered it just before contact and the Caps chose not to challenge.

Washington made a good habit of scoring shortly after the opponent early in the season, and they did it again on Wednesday. Just 74 seconds after the Preds took the lead, the Caps even pulled ahead when McMichael scored his eighth goal of the season off a Matt Roy rebound from the right point. Roy, playing for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury in Washington's opening game against New Jersey on Oct. 12, scored his first point as a Capital on McMichael's goal at 4:26.

Time and space were at a premium for both teams; both were at the net in the offensive zone, but both paid the price for being there. Washington spent more than four minutes with the extra man in the first, but their scrappy power play couldn't do anything against Nashville's second-ranked penalty kill team.

The second half was almost entirely played 5-on-5, but there was more of it. Tight, tenacious hockey with strong goaltending and steadfast defense on both sides.

Late in the middle phase, the Caps finally broke through and took a 2-1 lead through an attack zone change. Strome recovered a loose puck along the right wing wall and quickly delivered Ovechkin into the slot. The captain passed the ball back to Protas, who was able to get into the net in front of the defense. Protas shot the ball into the goal, giving Washington the lead for the first time.

“That’s a great job without all five guys having the puck,” Protas said of his goal. “And you can see we’re making that connection. We're all together, without each other, and we had each other's support in depth, and that's great puck movement. It leads us to a great opportunity and a great goal.”

Unfortunately for the Caps, the lead would prove to be short-lived.

Nashville equalized on the very next shift. After a few quick, sharp passes, Alexandre Carrier shot into the net, and Steven Stamkos intervened with a successful tip into the net, tying the game at 15:34, just 31 seconds after the Protas goal.

Nashville went all out in the third period, and the Caps needed Thompson to come up big a few times in the final period. A few minutes after Thompson sealed the right post to deny veteran pivot Ryan O'Reilly, the Caps got deep on the puck and managed a forecheck that paid off with the game-winning shot.

Strome tied up the puck and watched it behind the Nashville net, finding and feeding Ovechkin at the bottom of the right circle. The captain fired a shot past Saros to the other side, putting the Caps up to a goal lead. From 20 feet away, it was twice – or more – the distance of all four goals scored earlier that evening.

“I always have fun,” Ovechkin said of his scoring exploits. “When you win games, when you create some opportunities to score goals, it’s always fun to play.”

Strome's assist was the 200th of his NHL career.

“Sure, that’s a nice number,” he says. “It’s nice to get some individual awards.”

He deserves it; Strome has a point in 11 of Washington's 12 games this season.

Less than two minutes after Ovechkin's goal, it appeared the Preds had tied the score through a goalie scramble, but officials ruled Nashville defenseman Mark Del Gaizo guilty of goaltender interference. Preds coach Andrew Brunette chose to challenge the call, but the Caps prevailed.

“I think I was pretty confident,” Thompson says of the lengthy review. “Of course, these days you never know; When it comes to calls, they can go either way. But I was pretty confident with how long it took that I didn’t think it would count.”

After nullifying Washington's power play by challenging the failed coach, Nashville continued its push by missing Saros for an extra attacker.

With just over a minute left, Roy tried to fend off a tackle from Jonathan Marchesault, and Thompson made perhaps his best save of the night with less than 10 seconds left, denying Preds' sharpshooter Filip Forsberg from the slot.

“This guy usually has my number,” said Thompson, from Forsberg. “I just went back to the blue color, and I was lucky that he put it on me. But usually this guy gets a couple on me every night.

Before Wednesday's game, Forsberg scored six goals on 20 shots in four games against Thompson.

“I thought the effort was there,” Brunette says. “I thought we did a lot of good. We're still trying to build our game; Nothing is easy for me at the moment. But I liked that we put pressure on us and were determined. We didn’t get the result, but I think when you leave the rink you should feel pretty good.”