Capitals deliver much needed win over Senators

Six goals. A 6-3 win. That's offense. That's Washington Capitals hockey. But those six goals were scored by some unlikely heroes. There wasn't an Alex Ovechkin goal or even a goal from Tom Wilson nor Anthony Mantha. Yet it was the youth that stepped up to give Darcy Kuemper a well deserved win after all he dealt with all season.

Let's start with Kuemper though who made the timely saves when he needed to most. 18 of 21 stops is big even though he faced 21 shots the entire night. He only faced ONE shot on the Senators power play. Stopped it. He faced another while his team was shorthanded and stopped those too. In all that's 16 for 19 at even strength five on five play.

How good was that Caps defense against the Sens? As good as a block party at District E. They led the blocked shots category by a football score of 28-7.

Alright let's cut to the goals. Aliaksei Protas struck first at 6:33 with some good passing from Mantha and Connor McMichael. The man of the night John Carlson, who set the record for most games played by a defenseman in franchise history struck at 8:33 on the power play off a feed from Dylan Strome.

Via #NHLStats, it was Carlson's 145th career goal to pass Sergei Gonchar for sole possession of the second most goals by a Caps defenseman in franchise history.

At 10:12 it was Drake Batherson to get the Senators on the board. Shane Pinto tied it at 12:41. Max Paccioretty answered with his second goal of the season on the power play with Mike Sgarbossa and McMichael providing the apples. That came at 18:33.

Beck Malenstyn entered the chat as Nicolas Aube-Kubel worked the puck to Protas who found an open Malenstyn for the slam dunk and to make it 4-2 after one. That's six on the year for Malenstyn.

The Senators had just ONE power play opportunity and they blew it. The Caps went 2 for 3 on the man advantage the entire night. Brady Tkachuk made it a 4-3 game in the second before a 2020 first rounder completely took over.

He scored twice in the second and flirted with a hat trick in the third. His name? Hendrix Lapierre. Remember that name because he could be huge in the era we don't want to talk about. That Sens goal came at 1:27. Lapierre answered 21 seconds later off assists from Malenstyn and Ethan Bear.

Lapierre notched his second of the night at 10:55 off assists from Mantha and Protas. Kuemper and the defense protected the net the entire third period. Tonight the Caps are at it again with a big game against the Detroit Red Wings, and how big is this game after securing the two points last night?

Caps are seven back of the Red Wings in the wild card BUT they are also four back of the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Oh and guess who's next Friday night for the Caps? The Flyers. So yeah just keep winning is the motto.