The resurgent Ottawa Senators go for a third straight win when they host the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.
The Senators completed a successful weekend back-to-back set with a 3-1 win against the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday.
Washington enters the finale of a five-city road trip at 3-1-0 after a 3-1 win at the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. Though their six-game winning streak was snapped in Vancouver on Saturday, the Capitals have points in 13 of 14 games (10-1-3) and are tied atop the NHL in points with Winnipeg — which visits Washington on Saturday.
Logan Thompson, who signed a six-year, $35.1 million contract extension on Monday, made 32 saves in the win against Calgary. He has won six straight games, 11 straight starts and is 15-1-2 with a 1.74 goals-against average and .935 save percentage since Nov. 25.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good every game,” Thompson said. “I think that’s a lot of credit, too, to our team. They make my life easy on a regular basis. Even if we’re giving up a lot of shots, I’m able to see it, and I’m a big believer in if I can see it, I can stop it.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas scored for the Capitals, who have allowed two goals or fewer in each of their past eight games.
“That just speaks to our group in the dressing room and our coaching staff and systems,” Thompson said. “When we stick to our systems, we don’t give up a lot and we’re making teams earn what they get.”
Washington improved to 14-2-0 in games immediately following losses this season.
Strome had gone 10 games without a goal.
Alex Ovechkin did not score and has one goal in his past five games. He remains 20 goals from passing Wayne Gretzky (894) for the NHL record.
The Senators come in 7-2-1 over their past 10 games. Against Utah, rookie Leevi Merilainen made 34 saves and improved to 5-1-1 in his past seven starts.
Claude Giroux had a goal and an assist, Tim Stutzle had two assists and Brady Tkachuk and Ridly Greig each scored for the Senators, who have put themselves in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
“I don’t think it was by any means our best game or our cleanest game, but we just found a way to win,” Tkachuk said. “Leevi made some huge saves for us. You know, it’s nice, all those lessons we learned, just finding a way to win any way we can.”
Tkachuk snapped a 10-game pointless streak with his 19th goal of the season.
The Senators are 6-0-0 in their back-to-backs over the past three weekends.
“It’s tough, especially with travel, too, and back-to-backs don’t make it any easier,” Jake Sanderson said. “But we’re being pretty resilient right now. … We’re just digging in right now; it’s an important time of the year. We’re not going to go down. We’re going to keep grinding.”
This will be the second of three meetings. The Capitals won 1-0 on an Ovechkin goal with 1:53 left in overtime on Jan. 16 in Ottawa. Thompson earned the shutout with 24 saves, outdueling Merilainen (25 saves).
–Field Level Media
