The Washington Capitals clawed past the Florida Panthers avenging an overtime loss from earlier in the month against one of the teams in the league. 4-3 would be the final as Alex Ovechkin would notch a hat trick.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored late in the first period at 19:28 to put the Panthers up early. 1-0 was the score as the Caps led in shots 12-9.
In the second period the Caps poured it on. First it was Tom Wilson while the team was shorthanded. He finished up a two on one rush off a pass from John Carlson. Evgeny Kuznetsov had the secondary assist as the goal came at 1:34.
At 2:50 the Caps were in the middle of the power play attack and Ovechkin was there to clean up the loose mess in front of the net. Wilson and Aliaksei Protas had the helpers.
Ovechkin added another less than a minute later at 3:46 on a snapshot from the right face off circle. Protas and Kuznetsov had the helpers.
The Panthers pulled within one on a goal from Sam Reinhart at 6:49. 3-2 Caps was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 11-5 in the second.
At 4:02 in the third period Ovechkin completed the hat trick. He got a quick look in front of the net and banged it in, unleashing thousands of hats in the process. Kuznetsov and Wilson had the assists.
At 5:36 the Panthers got one back on a goal from Carter Verhaeghe. 4-3 would go on to be the final. The Panthers outshot the Caps 8-6 in the third while the Caps outshot the Panthers 29-22 overall. Ilya Samsonov made 19 saves on the 22 shots he faced.
"“He’s been excellent. That whole line has been excellent. Kuzy certainly factors into that. But at the end of the day, O is delivering a lot of offense with the way he’s playing the game. Tonight was a perfect example. It was a big game, and we needed big guys to step up. He was really really good.”"
As Ovechkin circled around the ice after his hat trick goal, he found his son Sergei sitting behind the glass. He gave him a fist bump as he skated past him. It’s cool that his son is at that age knowing his dad is more than just a hockey player.