Photo: X/@FlaPanthers
The Washington Capitals fell to the Florida Panthers, 3-2 (OT) Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. The overtime loss drops Washington’s record to 26-21-9 (61 points) on the season.
Following a scoreless first frame, the Panthers opened the scoring early in the middle stanza on a deflected goal by Nick Cousins. But the Capitals answered late in the period with a power play goal from Sonny Milano to make it 1-1 at the second intermission.
The Capitals took their first lead of the night midway through the third period on a power play goal from Tom Wilson, his 13th tally of the season, but the Panthers answered late in regulation with their own power play goal to tie it 2-2, ultimately sending the game to overtime.
The Panthers won it in the extra frame. Gustav Forsling notched the game-winner at 3:41 of extra time.
LINEUP
Charlie Lindgren (12-8-4, 2.63 GAA, .915 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Capitals. Anthony Stolarz (9-5-2, 1.97 GAA, .926 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Panthers. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Anthony Mantha – Connor McMichael – Tom Wilson
Max Pacioretty – Mike Sgarbossa – Sonny Milano
Beck Malenstyn – Aliaksei Protas – Pierrick Dube
Trevor van Riemsdyk – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Nick Jensen
Alex Alexeyev – Joel Edmundson
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratches: T.J. Oshie (injury), Nic Dowd (upper body injury, day-to-day), Hendrix Lapierre, Ethan Bear, Nicklas Backstrom (hip).
1ST PERIOD
The Capitals and Panthers went without a tally in the first frame. Florida led in five-on-five shot attempts, 14-12, and scoring chances, 6-3. The Capitals were 0 for 2 on the power play while the Panthers did not have a man advantage in the first 20 minutes.
2ND PERIOD
The Panthers opened the scoring early in the middle frame. Nick Cousins (3) deflected a long-range blast by Dmitry Kulikov at 4:03 of the second period.
HERE WE GO CUZ ‼️ pic.twitter.com/y8EiNCYR7l
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) February 25, 2024
The Capitals tied the game with a power play goal from Sonny Milano (6) at 18:31 of the second period. Rasmus Sandin (15) and Max Pacioretty (10) had the helpers.
Sonny Milano finishes off the gorgeous tic-tac-toe setup from Sandin and Pacioretty, tying it up at 1!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/Be7f6w0F4W
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) February 25, 2024
The game remained tied 1-1 into the second intermission. Five-on-five shot attempts were tied 15-15 in the second period.
3RD PERIOD
The Capitals took their first lead of the night on a power play goal by Tom Wilson (13) midway through the third period. Dylan Strome (21) and John Carlson (29) had the assists.
Tom Wilson races in to Strome’s beautiful bank pass and sneaks one home to put the Capitals up 2-1!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/SY8TnJQUYj
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) February 25, 2024
The Panthers were awarded a power play late in the frame, and they would cash-in. Aleksander Barkov scored the tying tally from Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour at 16:30.
ALL. TIED. UP. pic.twitter.com/As7GIX1EI8
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) February 25, 2024
Regulation would end, tied 2-2.
OVERTIME
The Panthers won it in the extra frame. Gustav Forsling notched the game-winner at 3:41 of extra time.
GUS IS JUST THAT GOOD pic.twitter.com/CGai09ymAJ
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) February 25, 2024
SHAVINGS (From Capitals PR)
- Alex Ovechkin played in his 1,40oth career NHL game.
- Sonny Milano scores his sixth goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. Milano has recorded three points (2g, 1a) in four games since returning to the Capitals lineup on Feb. 17.
- Rasmus Sandin earned the primary assist on Milano’s goal, extending his point streak to three games (1g, 2a). Sandin has recorded 12 points (3g, 9a) in his last 17 games.
- Max Pacioretty recorded the secondary assist on Milano’s goal, his 10th assist in 21 games this season. Pacioretty ranks tied for third on Washington in assists since Jan. 3, when he made his season debut (Ovechkin: 12a; Strome: 11a; Carlson: 10a).
- Tom Wilson scored his 13th goal of the season to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. It marks Wilson’s fourth power-play goal, which ranks fourth on Washington (Ovechkin: 7 PPG; Oshie: 6 PPG; Strome: 5 PPG).
- John Carlson earned the secondary assist on Wilson’s power-play goal, his team-leading 29th assist of the season. Carlson also leads Washington in power-play assists (11) and ranks tied for second in power-play points (12).
By Jon Sorensen
Great game by the Caps. FLA got lucky. Too bad for 72 Dube! Almost his first miracle. Take the standings point
Top six Bolts have a total of 138 goals. Top six Cats have a total of 124 goals. Caps defense did a great job on both of them.
True story. Probably the most improved bunch since all star break.
what happened with Mantha not on the bench? Hopefully nothing serious
Good question. Looking for details…
This one’s easy: Alexeyev in, EBear out
Captain Carbery should give Alex Alex his real shot: The next 25 games
AA played well tonight as far as I could see
I thought AA looked OK, but not great. He really struggles on the breakout and doesn’t properly make himself available. he was getting in Edmundson’s way and if you watch you’ll see Edmundson rarely passed to his partner but would look at 2 other options first. AA has to WANT the puck more and build trust of his teammates. That comes with games so hopefully we give him some more and let Bear sit (he isn’t going anywhere).
Plaid tablecloth uniforms in Hershey
I guess the fans like them ….
No. The fans mocked them since they were announced. Terrible jerseys.
Good game against the Cats again – but again the Cats come back to tie it, then win it… Third time already vs. Florida this season?
It seems the mixin’ and matchin’ due to injuries is catching up with the Caps: good game defensively, but not much going offensively at even strength… Some settling of the contents must occur now.
6 points behind Tampa now in WC2 (3 games in hand on them), 6 points back of Philly at third in Metro (2 games in hand). Not bad.
Caps’ skillset does NOT lend itself to Overtime at all. Plus, shootouts are an instant loss for them, as well. I swear, there are times I want to just leave the game/turn off the TV when they go to OT. But guess I’m too much of a masochist to do so.
They’ve won a couple of OTs and SOs this season…
It seems like it’s been awhile since they won in OT. As for shootouts, their only competent shootout shooters are not currently available. (Oshie and Kuzy.)
Indeed… 😬 So we HAVE to end it in OT. Also, given that Darcy’s NOT in net on most nights – he’s the shootout expert here…
Still in the hunt… I think we can cross Nick B off the injured list… retired… how was the 4th line? Bring up Frank…
Frank is injured and not coming up now, so stop
anyone catch the trivia answer last night? i’ve broken out the old google machine and cant find the answer
The answer was Dennis Maruk
thank you…i was between maruk and gartner
Good game. With all the injuries and Hershey players getting a chance to play, we may look back on this season as the beginning of things moving back in the right direction for long term.
How can that be? We’ve heard repeatedly from a poster that Hershey doesn’t develop players and cares too much about winning.
And he’s right. Because everyone knows, that on the internet, all you have to do is emphatically state your position with cockiness, snark and belligerence, while simultaneously belittling your opponent’s position, and you’ll be shown to be right. Simple as that.
Like you just did, right?
The problem with your lame analogy is that “that guy” states his position in a fallacious, and easily refutable manner. I pointed out the truth, and there’s ample evidence that I did tell the truth.
False equivalency
You could run for President with that philosophy. But thankfully, you’d lose.
What player last night who made a difference was developed at Hershey. Only one you can point to is McM and it is debatable whether he developed last year or the year was wasted by the last coach.
Way to move the goalposts
“McM and it is debatable whether he developed last year or the year was wasted by the last coach.”
So he played 77 games at Hershey, but didn’t develop at Hershey? Nice.
Dube had a breakaway, and hit a post, but didn’t affect the game. Nice.
Please untwist yourself from that pretzel you just made of yourself
Dube has had less than a year at Hershey. He hit a post big deal. That’s your evidence.
Other than goalies, I do not believe that the Bears have the best players in the AHL — no superstars. What they do have are a lot of very good and good players. Right now, they are playing and winning with a ton of players out. The Caps have Dube, LaPierre, and Sgarbossa. McIlrath has been working off a suspension and a number of players (such as Frank) have been out injured. No Bear has played in every game this year. They have depth and have needed that depth.
By the way, those awful plaid and lederhosen jerseys were for their first-ever FeBREWary Beerfest event, featuring the chance to taste a selection of some of the best beers and wines from premier local vendors, a sampling pass for six delicious food stops, an exclusive FeBREWary alpine hat, sponsored by Ever Grain Brewing Co., an exclusive FeBREWary tote bag, an exclusive keepsake FeBREWary tasting glass, sponsored by Rusty Rail, live entertainment and games. There was also a local charity food drive and the Bears auctioned off those dreadful things for charity after the game.
Aha, so they’re beer league outfits)) 🍻
Yup. It’s next man up mentality. Riley Sutter was close to being a bust at the beginning of last year, after missing a lot of time. But he seized the 4th line
center role, and looks to be ticketed for The Show. He goes down to injury,and Ryan Hofer steps right into his place, and plays well.
New Jersey used to have that in their Lamoriello/mini-dynasty days. Seemed like they had a never ending supply of kids to plug in, when someone went down, but none were stars.
No doubt the Bears best assets are depth and system (i.e. coaching). Bears don’t have any prospect superstars but they do have some very strong veteran talent mixed with developing young talent. Snively, Vecchione, Sgarbossa, Limoges, McIlrath, Frank, and Ness are all great AHL players. Some found veteran role pieces in Roe, Huntington, Priskie. But Bears also have a lot of players who can jump to NHL and be productive as we have seen this year.
Also, that mix of veterans also helps develop players like Lapierre, Miro, Dube, Trineyev, Hofer, Iorio, and Rybinski who are all waivers exempt next year. I think all of those players are in Hershey next year as experienced prospects.
I have said this a few times before, but I do think the look and mix of age players next year will be different. We will be much younger and more of a developing team. Will be interesting to see if Snively, Limoges, Frank, Johansen, Aktell, or Priskie come back. Assume Roe, Huntington, Massie, and Ozzie will be gone along with a couple/few of the other vets.
I think we add prospects Suzdalev, Hyland, Thomas, Chesley, and maybe Lemay and Guichiardi. Cristal and Allen are too young and will be forced to play CHL or over seas.
Dont look now but the Caps are 6 pts back of Philly with 3 g in hand…