The Washington Capitals won their final preseason game 4-3 in overtime over the Columbus Blue Jackets thanks to Dylan Strome’s game winner 39 seconds into the extra session.
Speaking of the number 39 it was number 39 Anthony Mantha who scored the first goal of the contest on Saturday night. Mantha deflected in a shot from Martin Fehervary at 9:56 with John Carlson providing the secondary assist.
The Blue Jackets tied things up at 10:37 with a goal from Patrik Laine. They took the lead at 14:58 on a power play goal from Yegor Chinakhov. The Caps tied it at 19:47 aka the McNugget minute on a power play rip from Alex Ovechkin with Carlson and Evgeny Kuznetsov providing the helpers.
2-2 was the score after one. The Blue Jackets outshot the Caps 15-8.
In the second period the Blue Jackets retook the lead with a goal from Sean Kuraly at 3:25. Nic Dowd tied it back up at 8:34 on a mini breakaway. Garnet Hathaway and Nick Jensen had the assists.
11-11 was the shot total in the second period. The third period was scoreless as the Caps were outshot 13-12. The Caps were outshot 39-32 overall but got the most important shot when the game went into overtime.
On a 2 on 1 rush Connor Brown found Strome with Carlson having the secondary assist. Strome finished it for his third goal of the preseason and to send the Caps fans home happy and excited that another regular season is upon us.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said this about Dylan Strome:
"“Sometimes you turn the page on where you were last year and this year is a new year and you get an opportunity to make the most of it and it looks like he is trying to do that.”"
The Capitals will open up the regular season on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena against the Boston Bruins. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. on TNT.