Charlie Lindgren found himself a full-time job in the National Hockey League with the Capitals, but the goaltender had lost the confidence of his coach lately. The former Montreal Canadiens made Wednesday night in Washington his first start in almost a month.
It was far from perfect for Lindgren, who still got away with a 5-4 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres. The 29-year-old goalkeeper will owe a lot of credit to his teammates, notably Alexander Ovechkin and Tom Wilson, who scored important goals in the third period.
Despite going three-on-four for half of overtime, the Sabers held on. In the shootout, on their last chance to redeem themselves after losing a 4-2 lead, the visitors were frustrated, however. Lindgren stood up to attempts by Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson.
It was against the Sabers, on February 26, that the doorman had made his most recent appearance. Darcy Kuemper has since been preferred to him despite his deputy’s honest statistics. In today’s duel, the American made 23 saves on 27 shots.
The Capitals were reunited with their captain, Ovechkin, after a game away due to injury. The Russian hailed his comeback with two points, a goal and an assist. His net, his 37th of the season, closed the gap. Wilson tied the game to send everyone into overtime with 1:8 to go.
Buffalo took a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes thanks to goals from Ilya Lyubushkin and JJ Peterka. Peyton Krebs had two assists, doing all the work for Zemgus Girgensons’ third goal. The fast attacker showed great patience in possession of the puck to get around the cage before handing over to the Latvian.
The Avalanche sweeps over Canada
In Toronto, the Colorado Avalanche continued their prolific trip to Canada by beating the mighty Maple Leafs 2-1 in a shootout.
Only one man was able to hit the target in the shootout: Nathan MacKinnon. The one who was complicit in the goal of Mikko Rantanen beat Ilya Samsonov to provide a third straight victory for the “Avs”.
Both goals in regular time were scored in the first period. Morgan Rielly had given the Leafs the lead about ten minutes before Rantanen’s success.
Having beaten the Montreal Canadiens 8 to 4 on Monday, the Colorado team will try to conclude its stay north of the border with a trio of victories. The Ottawa Senators will try to stop them on Thursday night.