The Washington Capitals ended their intimidating five game road trip with a three game winning streak to catapult them back inside the playoff picture with 15 games left to play. The trip ended with a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
Dylan Strome got things started at 14:59 with a wrister for his team leading 23rd goal of the season. Rasmus Sandin and Nick Jensen had the assists. 1-0 was the score after 20 with the Flames leading in shots 12-8.
In the second Alex Ovechkin scored twice and both times it came on the power play. The first came at 5:58 on a tip in and was assisted by Max Pacioretty and Tom Wilson. At 9:16 it was a slap shot from the office that was helped out by John Carlson and Strome. It was his 20th and 21st goals of the season.
It was the 19th consecutive season Ovechkin reached the 20 goal mark. He is one of just three players to achieve 19 consecutive seasons with 20 or more goals. Gordie Howe had 22. Ovechkin along with Brendan Shannahan each have 19 now. Ovechkin is now 51 goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky as the great eight now has 843 career goals.
Kevin Rooney got the Flames on the board at 10:41. At 14:22, the Caps answered with Hendrix Lapierre's eighth of the season that was assisted by Sonny Milano. In the thrid MacKenzie Weegar made it a two goal deficit at 7:13. Tom Wilson put the game away with an empty netter to seal the win at 17:31 for his 17th goal of the season. Nick Jensen and Beck Malenstyn had the apples.
Charlie Lindgren would get the win in goal behind stopping 34 on 36 shots for a .944 save percentage. The Caps were outshot 36-33. After dropping the first two games of the long and far away road trip, the Capitals return home to a nationally televised game with the Maple Leafs awaiting on Wednesday night having won three in a row.