*Photo from AP News*
Don't look now, but the Washington Capitals are starting to heat up. Alex Ovechkin scored, Anthony Mantha scored the winning goal, and the Capitals defeated the New York Islanders with a 4-3 shootout win in Washington on Tuesday night.
The Capitals have opened up a 6 game point streak, with a 5-0-1 record in that time. With his 3rd period goal, Ovechkin continued his climb up the goal scoring ladder, with goal number 767 moving him past Jaromir Jagr, putting him in 3rd place in NHL history in goals, trailing only Gordie Howe with 801, and Wayne Gretzky with 894.
Ovechkin, asked about his record setting goal, said that "I just close my eyes and shoot. I had pretty good chances in the previous games, and finally Kuzy wins a good face-off and put it right on my stick. And I scored on my very good friend Varly, so that's nice, too."
Picking up the win between the pipes for the Capitals was Vitek Vanecek, who had a solid outing. Vanecek stopped 29 of the 32 shots from the Islanders, good for a .906 save percentage. Vanecek's season record increases to 15-7-5 in 28 starts.
Mantha scored the only goal of the first period, giving the Capitals a 1-0 lead on his 4th goal of the season, coming 12:21 into the game. In the second, Brock Nelson tied the game 1-1 at 4:55 of the second, his 24th goal of the season. At the 17:02 mark, Kyle Palmieri scored his 10th of the year to put the Islanders in the lead 2-1.
At the 10:13 mark of the 3rd period, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored his first NHL goal, tying the game back up at a 2-2 score. Ovechkin then scored to put Washington ahead 3-2 at 15:02 of the 3rd. Anders Lee scored with 1:59 left in regulation, forcing OT with his 22nd goal of the year, assisted by Nelson and Noah Dobson.
In the shootout, Palmieri and TJ Oshie both converted in the 3rd round for the Islanders and Capitals, after a scoreless first two rounds. It then went scoreless again all the way until the 8th round of the shootout, when Mantha finally ended it, giving the Capitals a 4-3 win.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said that "I thought every minute we played in the game we put more of our best foot forward. I thought overtime was the best. Third period was good enough to get us back into the game and get us the lead. It was unfortunate it closed out with them pulling the empty net and scoring, but in the overtime the guys continued to push."
It was Semyon Varlamov who got the start in net for the Islanders, picking up the overtime loss. Varlamov, oddly enough, finished the game with the same stat line as Vanecek, with 29 of 32 saves for a .906 save percentage. Their records are different, with Varlamov's now at 4-12-2 this season.
Islanders captain Anders Lee said postgame that "We're competing, we're in every game. Top to bottom I think we've all played pretty solid hockey from the goalies on out. We're just trying to continue to put these good games together. When you start getting results and feeling good about yourself and your team game, then things start to come a little bit easier."
Up next, the Capitals hit the road to face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night, with Ilya Samsonov the projected starter. The Islanders head a few hours up the road to Manhattan for a clash with the New York Rangers, with Ilya Sorokin the likely starter.
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