Capitals strike down the Bolts on the road
The Washington Capitals were poised in the face of adversity on the road but despite losing T.J. Oshie late in the game, a game winner from Rasmus Sandin would suffice en route to a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning to propel the Caps to third place in the wild card just five back of the Red Wings.
Behind two goals from Connor McMichael including an empty net to seal it, along with goals from Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Anthony Mantha, Charlie Lindgren and the defense did the rest to stop a power play that's among the best in the league. The Caps offense was even able to solve an elite goalie in Andrei Vasilevskiy.
NAK struck on a feed from Beck Malenstyn for his sixh of the season just 2:30 into the game. Connor McMichael doubled the lead with another sick goal in his second straight game at 16:19. His empty netter notched his second straight game with two goals and he's now at 12 on the season.
Brandon Hagel made things interesting at 9:16 in the second to make it a 2-1 deficit for the Bolts. Anthony Mantha gave the Caps a two goal lead right back with his 18th goal of the season. It was assisted by Dylan Strome and Oshie. 3-1 was the score after two.
At 2:42 and 3:46, respectively, Nicholas Paul and Tyler Motte tied things up. Then this happened to Oshie later on and we have no culprit as it was a non contact play. Hope he gets better and this comes from both Caps fans and us at Stars and Sticks.
TJ Oshie had to be helped off the ice with an apparent non-contact injury pic.twitter.com/DoIFfl9cXo
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 23, 2024
Sandin saved the night for the Caps with 4:59 to go in the third while McMichael's empty net sealed this win. You can catch the highlights below ICYMI. Sandin now has three on the year with asissts coming from Aliaksei Protas and Strome. The latter's secondary assist was redemption after an offisdes challenge called back a goal.
Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson assisted on McMichael's empty net goal. For Ovechkin it was his 26th assist on the year and extends his point streak to 10 games. Nexxt up for the Caps is a Saturday night game at 6 p.m. at the Florida Panthers on Monumental Sports Network.
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