In Washington, DC, the Capitals downed the visiting Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, in extra time on Tuesday night. The win pushed the Caps one point back of the Philadelphia Flyers for third in the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers lost to the New York Rangers, 6-5, in overtime on Tuesday.Â
Detroit dropped two points back of the Caps for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Both teams have 10 games left on the dance cards.
Dylan Strome scored his second of the game at 1:55 of the extra session to give the Capitals the win.
“Phenomenal,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said of Strome. “I’m so proud because he’s just such a gamer. He wants to win so badly and you can feel it when you talk to him. You feel it on the bench. So, it’s not about him. It’s not about his own individual stats, goals, assists. He wants to score so badly because he wants to win.”
Charlie Lindgren made 30 saves in the win.
Washington improved to 36-26-9 off their sixth win in the last seven matches.
Following a scoreless opening stanza, Nic Dowd broke the ice at 2:09 of the middle frame for a 1-0 lead to the Caps, scoring through a maze in front of the Detroit cage.
“I mean, every game feels like a playoff game at this point” Dowd said. “This is our playoffs right now. That, I think, was big because they are so close to us in the standings, yes. But the next game’s going to feel the exact same way.”
Alex DeBrincat hit at 4:53 to tie the game, 1-1, scoring off a a nifty pass from Jeff Petry.
Detroit took a 2-1 lead on a marker from David Perron with 43 seconds left in the second. He scored off the power play, collecting an errant puck at the side of the crease.
Detroit dropped to 36-29-7 off their second straight loss.
“In reality, it’s probably a good road point, but under the circumstances, you certainly want to get the two full points,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Obviously, some mixed emotions there. … Under the circumstances we wanted a little bit more.”
In the third period, Connor McMichael tied the game, 2-2, scoring off a puck that bounced off the backboards to his stick for easy tap in. The goal came with 35 seconds gone in the period.
“We were playing OK, but we weren’t playing great, and [McMichael] scored and then I thought we controlled the third period up until maybe four, five minutes left,” Strome said. “I thought it was a good hockey game all around. Nice to be on the right side of those good hockey games and we’ll take it and move on.”
Strome potted his first of the game at 4:49 to give the Caps a 3-2 lead.
Patrick Kane forced the extra session when he tied the game, 3-3, at 14:40.
“We would love to just bottle it up and have a boring third period, but that’s not the way it went,” Detroit’s Dylan Larkin said. “And we had to respond, and we did.”
Alex Lyon made 26 saves in the loss.
“First two periods we managed the puck pretty well for the most part,” Detroit’s J.T. Compher said. “We were aggressive, we were forechecking. They had a good push. A little bit us, a little bit of a desperate team over there, too.”
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