NHL: Capitals overtake Ducks in explosive 3rd period

Date:

Share post:


Nic Dowd scored the winning goal with 6:35 remaining and Aliaksei Protas recorded his first career hat trick for the Washington Capitals, who pulled away to a 7-4 victory over the host Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.

Washington’s Pierre-Luc Dubois posted a goal and two assists. Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier scored goals, and Alex Ovechkin tied a season high with three assists. Tom Wilson and Brandon Duhaime notched two assists each. Logan Thompson made 25 saves as the Capitals won their fifth straight game.

Frank Vatrano, Pavel Mintyukov and Drew Helleson each had a goal and an assist for Anaheim. Jacob Trouba added his first goal of the season. Lukas Dostal finished with 36 saves as he faced more than 40 shots for the fifth time this season.

On the go-ahead goal, Dowd was in the right place at the right time after Wilson’s shot bounced off Dostal and right to the 34-year-old forward, who put the rebound in from the slot.

That was one of six goals between the two teams in the third period.

Anaheim scored a pair of game-tying goals less than two minutes apart early in the third. Mintyukov equalized at 3 at 4:26, but Protas’ second goal regained the lead for the Capitals just 31 seconds later. Vatrano, off a pass from Ryan Strome, tied it up again at 6:18.

Beauvillier scored his first goal in a Capitals uniform at 18:24. Washington acquired the winger from the Pittsburgh Penguins at the trade deadline last week.

With Dostal pulled in the game’s final minute, Ovechkin had the puck and a chance to get another goal closer to Wayne Gretzky’s record 894 goals, but he passed it ahead to the 6-foot-6 Belarusian forward to finish off the best game of his career.

Strome netted his 20th goal of the season, giving him four straight seasons with at least that many goals. It gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead just 2:07 into the game. However, Trouba and Helleson scored less than 30 seconds apart to give the Ducks the lead before the game was six minutes old.

Protas tied the game with 1:46 left in the first.

–Field Level Media

spot_img

Related articles

NHL: Kraken open homestand vs. Canadiens without high-energy forwards

For Seattle fans, something will be missing when the Kraken open a three-game homestand Wednesday night against the...

NHL: Youth is served as Ducks visit Utah

As two of the younger teams in the NHL, many players on the Anaheim Ducks and Utah Hockey...

NHL: Canucks visit Flames as wild-card race heats up in West

Neither team is in a do-or-die situation, but both sides know the importance of their meeting when the...

NHL: NHL roundup: Bruins score 3 in 3rd to rally past Panthers

Pavel Zacha scored the game-winner with 3:17 left in regulation to punctuate the Boston Bruins' three-goal third period...

FREE

Get the most important breaking news and analyses for Free.

Thank you for subscribing

Something went wrong.