Washington – Tom Wilson promised that Washington’s capital would play better in the second round of the Eastern Conference against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Then he did his best to make sure they did.
The 31-year-old right wing has done a bit of everything, big success delivery, making two potentially economic shooting blocks, helping the winning goal and scoring the empty connection in Washington 3-1 victory to Capital One Arena which equalized the series of the best 7.
“Obviously, he set the tone,” said capital captain Alex Ovechkin. “He is our chef. He plays intelligent. He plays physical. He scored a big goal. And in the playoffs, you have to play like that.”
With Wilson paving the way, the capitals rebounded after a defeat of 2-1 in overtime in match 1 Tuesday and will go to Caroline for match 3 on Saturday (6 p.m. HE; Max, Trutv, TNT, SN, VAT) feeling much better in their skin.
“This is not a good feeling when you go home after match 1 and you were not satisfied with the result, you were not satisfied with your efforts,” said Wilson. “And with the group we have, the ability to look at each other and ask more and know that the guy next to you will arise and give it is just a really cool thing. It’s a good thing to have in a team and I think that for the most part, we did a very good job with that.
“We knew we had to give more and be better.”
Capitals knew the final score and the 1-0 advance that they held after two periods in match 1 deceived because they were completely outdated for long periods. The Hurricanes surpassed them 33-14 and had an advantage of 94-34 in shooting attempts, finally carrying them and winning the goal of Jaccob Slavin 3:06 in overtime.
Washington was honest with himself on this subject after the match on Tuesday, and Wilson clearly indicated the urgency of the situation on Thursday morning saying: “Tonight must be the best match we played the playoffs.”
Washington responded with much better effort, being the attackers more, in particular in the second period when he surpassed Caroline 9-4 and took a 1-0 lead on the goal of Connor McMichael at 2:16. Wilson set up the goal of John Carlson’s power game who made 2-0 to 1:54 of the third period with a smooth pass of the defender in the left circle for a shot inside the left post.
