Apr 10, 2025; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets left wing James van Riemsdyk (21) celebrates his goal against the Buffalo Sabres during the first period at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images The visiting Washington Capitals continue their pursuit of the Presidents’ Trophy when they open a home-and-home series against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
The Capitals (50-19-9, 109 points) trail the Winnipeg Jets by three points for the top seed in the NHL playoffs but have a game in hand.
Columbus (36-33-9, 81 points) is holding on to slim hopes for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot but can be eliminated from playoff contention if the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators on Friday night in regulation.
The Capitals, with Alex Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goals record behind them, played some of their best hockey of late in a 5-4 shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
Tom Wilson scored his 33rd goal of the season, Pierre-Luc Dubois tallied in regulation and added the shootout winner, and Nic Dowd and Dylan Strome also scored. Charlie Lindgren made 30 saves for Washington in his third straight start with Logan Thompson on the injured list.
“I think we found a way to continue to battle throughout the whole year,” Strome said. “We haven’t had like a bad stretch of five, six, seven in a row. We’ve kind of found a way to bounce out of it, so that’s a sign of a good team and finding ways to win and I thought we did that tonight.”
Strome has nine points (three goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak.
After a ceremony honoring Ovechkin’s record, the Capitals fell behind 2-0. They trailed 2-1 before scoring three straight goals in a dominant second period.
“In the second period I think we played the way we have to play in the playoffs,” said Ovechkin, who had four hits. “Physical. Speed. Just controlling the neutral zone and the offensive zone.”
Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun (illness) was a late scratch.
Ovechkin’s status for Saturday is unclear, as he was expected to rest a game or two once Gretzky’s record was broken. The Capitals had plans for an event for fans Friday afternoon at Capital One Arena featuring Ovechkin to celebrate his achievement.
On Thursday, Jet Greaves, an emergency recall from Cleveland of the American Hockey League, made 39 saves as Columbus kept its hopes alive, rallying for a 3-2 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres.
Greaves was brought up after Elvis Merzlikins left practice Thursday morning with an undisclosed injury. Merzlikins was not at Friday’s optional practice and will miss Saturday’s game.
Captain Boone Jenner scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period for the Blue Jackets, who have won two in a row. Columbus trailed 2-0 early and 2-1 after two periods.
“The spot we’re in, we need these points,” Jenner said. “We talked about it before the third. No matter what happened that first 40, we had to go out and win a period. I liked our resiliency to do that. We just stuck to it, try to win a shift and go on to the next.”
The Blue Jackets’ remaining games are at Philadelphia and home against the New York Islanders.
“We played well enough and hard enough here tonight to get two points,” coach Dean Evason said. “We need to continue to do that in the last four games.”
Columbus defenseman Jake Christiansen left the game at 12:42 of the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. He will also miss Saturday’s game.
–Field Level Media
