Jose Theodore Says Capitals Were Best Shot At Cup For two teams that rarely see one another, Tuesday was a game with no love lost between the Washington Capitals and Calgary Flames. And ultimately, D.C. would come out on the winning side. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Aliaksei Protas stayed hot, and Logan Thompson was stellar again in a 3-1 win over Calgary. Here are all the takeaways from the victory, as D.C. has now won seven of its last eight. DUBOIS STAYS HOT, OVERCOMES SECOND-PERIOD BENCHING Pierre-Luc Dubois has been everything the Capitals hoped he'd be after acquiring him this summer and more, and he kept his hot streak going early in Calgary. Dubois scored his 10th goal of the season just under two minutes in, beating Dustin Wolf with a strong shot from the slot to make it 1-0. The 26-year-old has points in three of his last four games, and his 24 points over the last 25 games are the most on the Capitals over that span. While Dubois got off to a strong start to action against the Flames, he took an unsportsmanlike penalty after getting tangled up with Blake Coleman in the corner, leading to a Coleman power-play goal. Dubois did not play the remainder of the second period, but ultimately returned for the start of the third, as he got a hard lesson from Spencer Carbery, who has held his players accountable all season. Besides that hiccup, Dubois continued to deliver and is on pace for a career-high 66 points this season and ranks third on the team in scoring. He has 40 points in 50 games this season, the same amount of points he had in 82 games with the Los Angeles Kings just a season ago. ALIAKSEI PROTAS SHINES AGAIN It was another strong night for Aliaksei Protas, who extended his point streak to five games with a breakaway goal just as a late penalty against D.C. expired. Protas is up to 21 goals on the season, with 20 of those coming at even strength. He also made several plays that didn't show up on the scoresheet to impress once again for D.C. DYLAN STROME BUSTS OUT TO SPARK STRUGGLING POWER PLAY After cooling off a bit following his red-hot start to 2024-25, Dylan Strome was hungry to get back on the scoresheet. And with the game tied and Washington on a 5-on-3 power play, he was able to deliver and bust out. Strome got to the front of the net and snuck one past Wolf to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. It marked Strome's 13th goal of the season and his first in 10 games; his last goal was on Jan. 4 against the Buffalo Sabres. Washington's power play didn't have the strongest night, going 1-for-4, but ultimately, Strome's goal ended a three-game PPG drought and THOMPSON HAS HIMSELF A NIGHT IN HIS HOMETOWN After signing a six-year extension with Washington on Monday, Logan Thompson returned to the net and showed the team exactly why he earned a significant pay raise. Playing in front of family and friends in his hometown of Calgary, Thompson again put on a show, as has been the case all season. The 27-year-old was stellar in net, coming up with several key stops, including two on breakaways, to keep the Flames at bay. Coleman's deflection was the only shot that beat him, but that's hardly on him, and everything he saw, he stopped. Thompson finished the night with 32 saves on 33 shots to advance to 23-2-3 on the season and remain atop the league leaderboard in save percentage and GAA. He has now won 11 straight starts and has not lost in regulation since Dec. 17; he has just two regulation losses all season. NO LOVE LOST ON EITHER SIDE There was a lot of bad blood in this one, as Tom Wilson found himself going back and forth with Rasmus Andersson all night long. Things boiled over in the third when Adam Klapka cross-checked Wilson from behind, and later in regulation when Andersson did an imitation of Wilson hurting after the play.
