Photo: @Capitals
The Washington Capitals shut out the Ottawa Senators by a score of 1-0 in overtime at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday to improve to 30-10-5 (.722 points percentage) this season and extend their winning-streak to three and point-streak to nine (6-0-3). Goaltender Logan Thompson made 25 saves in his second consecutive shutout.
The game was the first time that the two teams squared off since Washington traded Nick Jensen, who played parts of six seasons with the Capitals, and a 2026 third-round pick to Ottawa for Jakob Chychrun on July 1.
Washington’s Lines
Alex Ovechkin — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Taylor Raddysh – Lars Eller — Ethen Frank
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Andrew Mangiapane
Rasmus Sandin — John Carlson
Martin Fehervary — Matt Roy
Chychrun — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Thompson
Hunter Shepard
- Scratched
- LW Jakub Vrana
- D Dylan McIlrath
- D Alexander Alexeyev
- Injured
- LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- RW T.J. Oshie (back)
- G Charlie Lindgren (lower-body)
Ottawa’s Lines
Brady Tkachuk — Josh Norris — Drake Batherson
Claude Giroux — Tim Stützle — Adam Gaudette
Nick Cousins – Shane Pinto — Ridly Greig
Matthew Highmore — Zack Ostapchuk — Zack MacEwen
Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub
Donovan Sebrango — Jensen
Tyler Kleven — Nikolas Matinpalo
Leevi Merilainen
Anton Forsberg
- Scratched
- Injured
- LW David Perron (upper-body)
- C Michael Amadio (upper-body)
- G Linus Ullmark (back)
- D Jacob Bernard-Docker (high ankle sprain)
- D Travis Hamonic (lower-body)
- LW Cole Reinhardt (upper-body)
- C Noah Gregor (lower-body)
- D Thomas Chabot (upper-body)
First Period
Scoring
Stats
- 8-6 Ottawa in shots
- .727 Washington on faceoffs
- 8-7 Washington in hits
- 9-2 Washington in blocked shots
- 9-4 Washington in giveaways
- 2-0 Ottawa in takeaways
Stay hot, LT pic.twitter.com/vS9hoeDFrO
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 17, 2025
Graphs: Natural StatTrick
Second Period
Scoring
Stats
- 17-11 Ottawa
- including 9-5 in the second
- Ottawa did not score on three power plays through 40 minutes
- .579 Washington on faceoffs
- 17-15 Washington in hits
- 13-4 Washington in blocked shots
- 13-10 Washington in giveaways
- 5-1 Ottawa in takeaways
Third Period
Scoring
Stats
- 23-21 Ottawa in shots
- 11-6 Washington in third period
- .588 Washington on faceoffs
- Washington did not convert on their lone man advantage
- 23-18 Washington in hits
- 16-11 Washington in blocked shots
- 16-14 Washington in giveaways
- 5-2 Ottawa in takeaways
Overtime
- Scoring: 3:07, 1-0 Washington: Sandin flew into the offensive zone before dropping the puck at the blueline to Ovechkin, who roofed a wrister over the blocker of Meralainen. It marks Ovechkin’s NHL-record 27th career overtime goal and 179th goalie he has scored on. Ovechkin is now 21 goals from passing Wayne Gretzky for first all-time. Nine of Sandin’s 14 assists this season have been primaries.
874.
ALEX OVECHKIN IS 21 GOALS AWAY FROM WAYNE GRETZKY’S RECORD! pic.twitter.com/v6IE9z0FWX
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 17, 2025
- Shots: 25-23 Washington, including 4-0 in overtime
Alex Ovechkin has surpassed Jaromir Jagr for the most goaltenders scored on in NHL history, now totaling 179 after scoring his first career goal against Leevi Merilainen tonight. pic.twitter.com/e5rZwPGfyX
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) January 17, 2025
Thompson is the first Capitals goaltender to post back-to-back shutouts since Ilya Samsonov in 2021-22 (11/17/21-11/20/21). Thompson tied Braden Holtby (25 games in 2015-16) for the fewest games needed to record 20 wins in a single season in franchise history. Thompson has stopped 76 of 77 shots against (.987 save percentage) over his last three starts.
Washington reached the 30-win mark in their 45th game of the season. That’s tied for the third-fewest games needed to record 30 wins in franchise history (2015-16: 40; 2019-20: 44; 2016-17: 45).
Washington’s lead in the Metropolitan Division over the New Jersey Devils (with two games in hand) stayed at four points (with two games in hand). They are also 10 clear of the Carolina Hurricanes (with both teams having played 45 games).
Next game: Saturday vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market).
By Harrison Brown
