If you left Capital One Arena after the Sharks scored their empty net goal to go up by two, you blew it. The Washington Capitals snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Last year in this building it was the San Jose Sharks who came back and stunned the Washington Capitals. This time around, the second line came up big in the last minute with Jakub Vrana starting the rally and T.J. Oshie tying the game. Lars Eller would win it in overtime.
The first period was quiet with no goals or penalties. San Jose outshot Washington 13-10. The Sharks got on the board with a power play goal from Evander Kane at 6:25 in the second period, his first of three goals in that middle stanza.
Nic Dowd tied the game by crashing the net and taking a pass from Brendan Leipsic at 7:29 to bang it in and get the Caps on the board. Michal Kempny had the secondary assist with a pass up ice to Leipsic.
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It was Dowd’s first goal since him and his wife Paige gave birth to their first child. Dowd missed the New Years Eve game to be with his wife for the couple’s big moment.
Kane and the Sharks retook the lead at 10:08 before he completed the hat trick at 16:49 with a power play goal. At 18:42, Vrana pulled the Caps within one with a top shelf shot right in front of the net.
Oshie had the assist and the duo would come up even bigger the next period. 3-2 was the score entering the second intermission with the Caps outshooting the Sharks 12-11.
The Caps kept the pressure on but needed to pull Braden Holtby for an extra attacker. With a minute left Logan Couture looked like he sealed it with an empty net goal. Not so fast.
With 46.9 seconds left, Vrana spun around after taking the pass from Eller and scored to pull the Caps within one. Radko Gudas had the secondary. Oshie tied it with 14.2 seconds to go with a one-time shot from the right face-off circle. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom had the helpers there.
The overtime had all the fast paced action on both ends a hockey fan could dream of. After Holtby made a stop he fired the puck over to John Carlson who found Eller for the win.
The Caps outshot the Sharks 6-3 in the third but were outshot 2-1 in overtime. The shot totals were 29 apiece. Holtby stopped 25 of the 28 that he faced for an .893 save percentage.