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Panthers can’t keep up, fall 6-3 to Capitals

Feb 4, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals center Nic Dowd (26) celebrates after scoring a goal on Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) in the third period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The visiting Florida Panthers faltered in the early stages of the third period, allowing the Washington Capitals to pull away for a 6-3 victory at Capital One Arena.

Florida was done in largely by bottom-sixers Nic Dowd and Andrew Mangiapane as the pair combined for two goals and five points, factoring in on both the game-opening and eventual game-winning goals.

Mangiapane bagged the game’s maiden marker with 5:52 remaining in the opening period. After Rasmus Sandin fed him the puck down low, Mangiapane, who was essentially left all alone, curled around to create a shooting angle for himself and sniped Sergei Bobrovsky short-side over the shoulder from the left circle. Dowd drew the secondary helper on Mangiapane’s first tally in nine games.

Sam Bennett would even the score at 19:30 by forcing Sandin to turn the puck over and then slinging a rising wrister at Logan Thompson after receiving a crisp backhand pass from Jesper Boqvist. Thompson made the first save, but Bennett got the rebound and backhanded it home for his 17th of the season.

The Panthers would fall behind again 1:15 into the second while on the power play. Tom Wilson poked the puck away from Aaron Ekblad and broke away 2-on-1 with Aliaksei Protas. Protas threaded a backhand pass through Matthew Tkachuk’s skates and Wilson slammed it into the back of the net. Ugh… Can’t do that, especially on the road, especially against the current Beast of the East.

Aleksander Barkov would get loose and forge another tie 2:59 after Florida gagged up the shorty. After Dmitry Kulikov repelled an entry, Sam Reinhart knocked the puck up to Carter Verhaeghe. Verhaeghe lifted a lead pass to Barkov and he fended off Jakob Chychrun before going to the backhand to solve Thompson.

Lars Eller put the Capitals ahead for good when he took the puck away from Kulikov and sped into the Florida zone, pulled Bobrovksy to the ice and finished on the forehead with the lone assist credited to John Carlson. The go-ahead goal came 2:19 into the third. Never ceases to amaze me how Bobrovsky is so good, but so bad on breakaways.

Washington got a key insurance goal at 6:10 while operating a skater up courtesy of a delayed penalty call, Mangiapane worked his way down the left side and whipped a beautiful centering pass to Dowd to make it 4-2, home team. Dylan Strome got the second assist on what turned out to be the game-winner.

The Panthers weren’t dead yet and halved the deficit 1:36 later when Bennett took a headman pass from Niko Mikkola, sent a short pass to Nate Schmidt, who got the puck to Tkachuk, who fired a absolute screamer past Thompson’s glove from the right circle that left the goalie looking at the dented twine in disgust.

Unfortunately, that would be the only one of Florida’s 14 shots to find pay dirt during the final frame.

Protas would hit the empty net unassisted at 18:21 and Alex Ovechkin would take another step towards history by notching a second empty-netter, from Martin Fehervary and Dowd, with a mere tenth of a second left on the clock to complete the scoring.

With the game’s final marker, Ovechkin recorded his 19th career 25-goal season, the second most in NHL history behind Mr. Hockey, the immortal Gordie Howe, who hit the mark twenty times.

Other than a bit of a sleepy start, not much to fault about the effort the Cats put forth. They were just a little too sloppy in their execution and didn’t get the best of games from Bobrovsky, who finished with 20 saves. At 2-2 heading into the third, the tilt was there for the taking, but it was the host Capitals that stepped up and opened up a two-goal bulge that prevented the Panthers from capturing at least a point. The Cats get today off before completing the brief road trip against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Stars & Stripes

  • Nic Dowd earned First Star honors for producing a goal and two assists. It was Dowd’s first three-point game of the 2024-25 campaign.
  • Matthew Tkachuk has amassed seven points (4G/3A) during a four-game point streak. In addition to scoring, Tkachuk matched Evan Rodrigues with a game-high five hits.
  • Alex Ovechkin is now within 17 goals of passing Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894. The 39-year-old Ovechkin has scored in three straight contests.
  • After going 20 games without a goal, Sam Bennett has lit the lamp four times in his last eight outings. Bennett is three away from the third 20-goal season of his career.
  • Logan Thompson, who stopped 30 shots, posted his 24th win of the season and is currently on a fantastic 12-0-2 run.

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