Capitals: Charlie Lindgren redeems himself at the right time

BET À DAY

Charlie Lindgren has found himself a full-time job in the National Hockey League with the Capitals, but the goaltender hasn't had the confidence of his coach lately. The former Montreal Canadiens made his first start in nearly a month on Wednesday night in Washington.

It was far from perfect for Lindgren, who got away with it likewise came out with a 5-4 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabers. The 29-year-old goalkeeper will owe a lot of credit to his teammates, notably Alexander Ovechkin and Tom Wilson, who scored important goals in the third period.

Despite defending three-on-four for half of overtime, the Sabers held on. In the shootout, on their last chance to redeem themselves after losing a 4-2 lead, the visitors were frustrated, however. Lindgren stood up to attempts by Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson.

It was against the Sabers, on February 26, that the goalkeeper had made his most recent appearance. Darcy Kuemper has since been preferred to him despite his deputy's honest statistics. In the duel of the day, the American made 23 saves on 27 throws.

The Capitals were reunited with their captain, Ovechkin, after a game away due to injury. The Russian hailed his comeback with two points, a goal and an assist. His net, his 37th of the season, closed the gap. Wilson tied the game to send everyone into overtime with 1:8 to go.

Buffalo had taken a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes thanks to goals from Ilya Lyubushkin and JJ Peterka. Peyton Krebs had two assists, doing all the work for Zemgus Girgensons' third goal. The speedy forward showed great patience in possession of the puck to get around the cage before handing over to the Latvian.

The Avalanche sweep over Canada

In Toronto, the Colorado Avalanche continued their prolific trip to Canada by beating the mighty Maple Leafs 2-1 in a shootout.

Only one man hit the target in the shootout : Nathan MacKinnon. The one who was complicit in Mikko Rantanen's goal beat Ilya Samsonov to give the Avs a third straight victory.

The two goals in regular time were scored in the first period. Morgan Rielly had given the Leafs the lead ten minutes before Rantanen's success.

Having beaten the Montreal Canadiens 8-4 on Monday, the Colorado team will try to conclude its stay north of the border with a trio of victories. The Ottawa Senators will try to stop them on Thursday night.