The teams with the two highest point totals in the NHL will face off on Saturday night when the Winnipeg Jets visit the Washington Capitals.
The Western Conference-best Jets recorded their fifth straight win and eighth in their last 10 games with a 6-2 romp over the host Boston Bruins on Thursday.
The East-leading Capitals, in turn, secured at least a point for the 14th time in 15 games (10-1-4) by rallying from a late two-goal deficit in a 5-4 overtime road loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Washington returns home following a 3-1-1 record during its season-long five-game road trip.
“It was a positive trip,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said. “It was a long trip and a lot of difficult games in difficult environments. This probably being one of the toughest. … At the end of the trip, coming back from the West Coast to East, a stop in Ottawa. The way that we played, to try to find a way to get that thing tied up and the way that we battled to the bitter end, it was a great trip overall for our team.”
Winnipeg has enjoyed a solid start to its three-game road trip, following up a 4-1 win in Montreal on Tuesday with a strong finish in Boston.
Mark Scheifele scored twice on Thursday to reach the 30-goal plateau for the fourth season, snapping a tie with Patrik Laine for third-most in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history. Scheifele’s 328 goals are tied with Ilya Kovalchuk for the most with the franchise.
“A huge honor. Very, very special,” said Scheifele, who has a team-leading 31 goals to go along with 59 points in 53 games this season. “And (Kovalchuk) was a fantastic player. Like I’ve said before, I play with some pretty fantastic players that set me up in those positions, so all (the credit) goes to them.”
Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel was quick to credit Scheifele for what he brings to the table.
“He realizes that he’s more of a threat when he’s in that mentality of shooting the puck,” Arniel said. “If you become somebody that’s sort of one-dimensional and just a passer, the tendency is for the defender to take your options away… Now Mark recognizes when he’s alone, or he has a chance to shoot the puck, he has such a great shot as you saw on that breakaway. When he does those types of things, it makes it hard to defend him.”
Another player hard to defend is Kyle Connor, who capped the scoring to reach the 30-goal plateau for the seventh time in his career — matching Kovalchuk for the franchise record.
Superstar captain Alex Ovechkin, who owns many Capitals records in his own right, scored with 6:59 remaining in the third period on Thursday. It was his team-leading 23rd goal of the season and 876th of his career, moving him 19 goals shy of breaking Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record.
Ovechkin added two assists and Dylan Strome scored two goals to boost his team-leading point total to 49. Strome has three goals in his last two games following a 10-game drought.
Speaking of droughts, Connor McMichael ended an 11-game run without a goal by scoring in the second period. The goal was his 18th of the season, matching his career high set last season.
