Capitals dominate Blackhawks

The Washington Capitals needed a win and they need to win out to have a chance at the playoffs. Let’s be honest, we aren’t getting Connor Bedard so let’s get some wins.

The Capitals crushed the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1. No blown leads this time. Conor Sheary opened the scoring with his 14th goal of the season at 10:15. Anthony Mantha doubled the lead at 10:33 with the assists coming from Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov for his 11th goal of the season and making us eat our words.

2-0 Caps was the score after one with the Blackhawks leading in shots 10-8.

87 seconds into the second period Nic Dowd made it 3-0 with his 13th goal of the season. Aliaksei Protas had the assist. Nicklas Backstrom then scored on the power play at 8:12 for his sixth goal of the season. Dylan Strome and John Carlson had the helpers. Welcome back John Carlson, who played in his first game since Dec. 23.

4-0 Caps was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 15-9 in the second period.

Again welcome back Carlson as he scored with his signature shot at 1:04 on the power play for his ninth goal of the season. Backstrom and Strome had the assists.

Nikita Zaitsev put the Panthers on the board at 3:08. Alex Ovechkin answered with a breakaway backhanded goal for his 41st goal of the season and 821st of his career to put him at 73 away from Wayne Gretzky. That came at 14:56.

The Blackhawks led in shots 9-5 in the third period while shots were even at 28 overall. In addition to Carlson, goaltender Darcy Kuemper made his return from an upper body injury making 27 saves.

Carlson talked to the media after the game about his return to action:

“Probably better than I thought but still not very good. … I haven’t been nervous for a game like that in a long time, so it was nice to work through that.”

The Capitals take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in what will be a big game for both teams in the homestretch of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby’s careers. Yes I just cried typing that.