ANAHEIM, Calif. — Staring down the empty net with a chance to score the 887th goal of his career, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin instead passed the puck to winger Aliaksei Protas, who proceeded to complete the first hat trick of his career.
Protas’s goal, his 28th of the season, capped off a career night for the 24-year-old as the Capitals fought through a roller coaster matchup at Honda Center to beat the Anaheim Ducks, 7-4. Goaltender Logan Thompson made 25 saves on 29 shots for Washington. Lukas Dostal stopped 36 of 42 for Anaheim.
“I thought it was a great hockey game,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said. “That was fast. The pace was up in the first period. You could feel it right away. It didn’t catch us off guard, it just was — that first period, we did some really good things, and then they got us on our heels. You could feel right away, it was going to be a highly competitive game. Liked a lot of the things we did tonight.”
Center Dylan Strome, with older brother Ryan watching from the Ducks’ bench, put the Capitals into the lead just 2:07 into the game. Strome found a lane of space down the slot and received a pass from winger Tom Wilson that he elevated on his backhand over Dostal for his second career goal against a team his brother was on. Strome began his career 0-7 in matchups against his brother; he has now won the past five after Tuesday’s triumph.
Ryan Strome had a break shortly after his younger brother scored but Thompson made the save. On that same shift, though, Jacob Trouba scored his first goal as a Duck to tie the game at 4:51. Trouba jabbed at a loose puck in front of Thompson and forced it through amid traffic around the crease.
Twenty-nine seconds later, Drew Helleson scored from distance to put Anaheim into the lead. Slow starts have been an issue for the Capitals this year, and though Washington struck first, the mid-period lull bore a strong resemblance to some of its sluggish starts in recent weeks.
But with just 1:40 left to play in the opening frame, after the Capitals found their stride and began to spend more time in the offensive zone when Protas tied things up at two goals apiece. Ovechkin’s shot off a faceoff win by center Pierre-Luc Dubois was blocked, and Protas corralled the bouncing puck before firing a wrister for his 26th goal.
“Shot by Ovi to get the [defenseman] out of the play kind of, with the blocked shot,” Protas said. “Good battle by Dubie. I just needed to score.”
Defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk went off for slashing with 31 seconds left in the first period. The Capitals killed the penalty while allowing the Ducks zero shots on goal.
At the 5:19 mark of the second period, Dubois gave Washington the lead for the second time as he deflected an inch-perfect feed from defenseman Matt Roy past Dostal at the side of the net. Roy’s delivery came from the right point and found Dubois on the left side of the crease for the finish.
Winger Taylor Raddysh had a look at extending the Capitals’ lead late in the second period but was stopped by a flash of the glove from Dostal. On the same shift, Raddysh took a slashing penalty that carried over into the third period.
Washington killed that penalty, but the power play gave Anaheim momentum and confidence. And just 4:26 into the final frame, Pavel Mintyukov beat Thompson from the top of the offensive zone to tie the game yet again.
The Capitals needed only 28 seconds to respond. Protas scored his second goal of the game, this time on his backhand, from the low slot to restore Washington’s lead — but it was once again short-lived. Frank Vatrano was left wide open on the far side of the ice, as everyone else chased the puck on the other side, and scored his 20th goal of the season to even the score at 4 by the 6:18 mark of the third.
“That’s a good team,” Carbery said. “It’s hard to check them for 60 minutes and limit what they get because they’re just so fast, they’re so skilled, they’re so shifty. They’re going to break you down in certain situations. We did give up quite a bit, but we also created a lot as well.”
Center Nic Dowd gave the Capitals their fourth lead of the game with 6:35 left to play. Dowd helped create a turnover in the neutral zone and Wilson brought the puck across the offensive blue line with speed for a shot that Dostal stopped, but Dowd was in position to slam home the rebound.
“We’ve talked in the past where we’ve been a little bit too perimeter, when we don’t have the ability to get second and third chances on net, which cause a lot of problems for the goalies,” Dowd said. “A lot of the goalies in our league, they’re going to stop that first shot initially. It’s about getting traffic to the net and making them move laterally, respond to unpredictable pucks. Tonight, I think we did a good job of that.”
Washington had several chances to create some breathing room in the final minutes, including two looks for Ovechkin that were blocked and a quick-developing two-on-one for Strome and Wilson that petered out.
The Ducks looked to pull Dostal for an extra attacker in the final 2:30, but Anaheim couldn’t control the puck long enough to get him off the ice. Instead, with 1:36 left, winger Anthony Beauvillier — who was acquired at the trade deadline Friday — skated in on a breakaway and scored in his second game as a Capital to seal the victory.
Anaheim pulled Dostal after Beauvillier’s goal; Washington had both Ovechkin and Protas on the ice. Though fans began to chant Ovechkin’s name, hoping to see him draw closer to Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goal record, Ovechkin instead fed Protas to complete his own milestone with 17 seconds to go.
“I just saw the eye contact with Ovi,” Protas said. “An unreal accomplishment coming up and he makes that play, you know? And how happy he is for me. That says everything about him as a teammate. Happy to get it.”
