The Washington Capitals fell to the Utah Hockey Club 5-4 in a shootout on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena. John Carlson was honored before the game for 700 career points.
Josh Doan put Utah up 1-0 at 1:10 with a wrist shot for his fourth of th eseason. Michael Carcone doubled their lead at 1:42 off a tip in for his fifth of the season. Afer Olli Maata was called for tripping Ethen Frank at 3:15, the Capitals went to the power play and got a goal from Tom Wilson to put them on the board at 3:47.
It was Wilson's 23rd of the season. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Dylan Strome had the assists for their 31st and 38th, respectively.
Then Utah answered with a goal from none other than villain Jack McBain at 7:07. On Super Hero Day at Capital One Arena, Pierre-Luc Dubois would try to ignite a comeback once the Caps were sent to the power play again. This time Kevin Stenlund was called for tripping Aliaksei Protas at 11:39.
At 12:38 PLD struck for his 13th of the season as Wilson added his 18th assist of the season and Alex Ovechkin notched his 15th. For Ovechkin, it was the 1,591st point of his career to pass Phil Esposito for 11th all time in the NHL in points.
3-2 would be the score after one as the Caps led in shots 15-9. In the second Brandon Duhaime was called for holding at 1:29 against Maatta. The Utah Hockey Club would answer with a goal on the power play from Dylan Guenther for his 20th of the season. That came at 2:47.
4-2 would be the score after two periods as Utah would lead in shots 11-10 in the middle stanza.
In the third period Dylan Strome made it a 4-3 game with his 16th goal of the season at 4:49. Ovechkin got his second assist of the game and 16th of the season for his 444th multi point game. That's the 12th most in NHL history and ranks second among active players behind Sidney Crosby, who has 484 multi point games. Connor McMichael had the secondary assist for his 22nd of the season.
Carlson, the man of the afternoon, along with Ovechkin would then set up Wlson for his second goal of the day and 24th of the season at 18:29 to tie the game at four and help the Capitals to a point. Ovi upped his assist total to 17 while Carlson is at 31 helpers.
The Caps led in shots 15-7 in the third period and the game would require overtime. The Caps put up three shots compared to Utah's zero in overtime but none went in as the game would head to a shootout.
PLD would go first but he got stopped. Nick Schmaltz would score the only goal Utah needd to win the game as Protas and Strome were shut down. Despite the loss the team is still at a good spot in the standings entering the Four Nations break.
Although this was a loss, the Caps still came back to get a point and extend their home point streak to 15 games with a 10-0-5 record. They have just one regulation loss in the calendar year of 2025, home or away, with a 12-1-6 record. Logan Thompson, who made 23 saves on the day, hasn't lost in regulation since Dec. 17 at the Chicago Blackhawks, going 12-0-3.
This was also the 17th three assist game of Alex Ovechkin's careeer and first since Nov. 24, 2021 agaisnt the Montreal Canadiens, per #NHLStats. Ovechkin will return from the 4 Nations break needing 16 goals in the Capitals final 27 games to break Wayne Gretzky's NHL record of 894 this season.
When the Caps return to game action it'll be on Saturday Feb. 22 in a road contest at 3 p.m. against the Pittsburgh Penguins on ABC and ESPN plus.