Capitals get the win in Seattle
Washington survives and keeps their playoff hopes alive.
The Washington Capitals unleashed their young weapon in Seattle in their first ever road win over the Kraken. T.J. Oshie struck on the power play at 14:20 of the second period. It was his 11th goal of the season.
At 3:32 of the third Oliver Bjorkstrand notched his 18th goal of the season. Connor McMichael answered at 11:36 with his 14th of the season. Charlie Lindgren was lights out the rest of the way as he ended his night stopping 23 of the 24 shots that he faced.
The Caps needed a win like this after they fell the night before 7-2 to a tough Edmonton Oilers team. The Kraken were well rested having just came off an overtime setback to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The win catapults the Capitals to 31-25-9 for 71 points. That's one point back of the Red Wings as well as the Islanders, who are second in the wild card for that final playoff spot. 65 games down means 17 games left to play.
T.J. Oshie would add via Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network on X:
"For teams that are on this bubble right now, this is our playoff time, just to get a chance to go to the postseason. Big two points. Feel good about it but we got to regroup. We've got a monster in Vancouver (on Saturday night) and we've got to find another way to get two points."
Shots were even much of the night. Seatle edged the Caps 9-8 in the opening 20, 11-4 in the final 20 and 24-23 overall while the Caps had the edge in the shot department in the second 11-4.
Next up is another late nighter. Keep drinking coffee. It's a road contest at the Vancouver Caucks at 10 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network 2.