With 14 seconds on the clock and in the throes of the McNugget Minute, Tom Wilson and the Washington Capitals breathed a collective sigh of relief against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
At 6-on-5, Wilson went top cheese to force overtime, and although the game ended in a 5-4 OT loss, that one point — and a New York Rangers’ loss in regulation — has Washington postseason-bound for the seventh straight season.
“You can never take that for granted,” Lars Eller said of clinching a playoff berth. “That’s the first step you gotta accomplish. To compete for the Cup, you gotta get in, and we can checkmark that.