Celebrating Scandinavia Heritage Night, Nicklas Backstrom scored the winner in the shootout (via Monumental)
The Capitals had the best power play in the league going into Thursday’s game, going 1 for 3 1 for 3 against the Wild. Alex Ovechkin scored his 13th goal of the year in the first period, in the same spot on the left he has scored other goals with the man advantage.
“We are doing the same things every night,” Marcus Johansson said after the game. “We are sticking to it and when we do that and everybody knows their assignment. It gives us a lot of options.”
The Caps are scoring about 28% of the time with the extra skater.
But that’s not all. Killing off more than 9 out of 10 penalties this season, that’s also top in the league. Though they gave up a goal on the PK against Minnesota, they killed off Martin Erat’s late interference call, paving the way for a shootout.
By the way, they’re undefeated in the SO, too. So, let’s just say that the Caps are pretty good at special teams.
