Tom Wilson trades barrage of heavy hits and rights on Zach Ostapchuk – Source: Imagn

During the Washington Capitals’ dominant 5-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night, tensions boiled over in the second period. Capitals winger Tom Wilson and Sharks forward Zach Ostapchuk dropped the gloves and exchanged blows in a hard-hitting fight.

Wilson fired several heavy rights directly at Ostapchuk’s face. Ostapchuk tried to fight back but was quickly overpowered by Wilson’s barrage of punches. The officials moved in to break it up after Ostapchuk dropped to the ice.

Watch the video here:

TOM WILSON MAKES LIGHT WORK OF ZACK OSTAPCHUK 😳🥊 pic.twitter.com/rODdyroGUR

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) March 15, 2025

Both Wilson and Ostapchuk were assessed fighting majors for the fight. Ostapchuk is playing his first game with the Sharks after being traded from the Senators at the deadline.

Dylan Strome, Aliaksei Protas, Taylor Raddysh, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals. Goaltender Logan Thompson stopped 19 shots in the win.

The lone goal for the struggling Sharks came from Macklin Celebrini. San Jose netminder Alexander Georgiev allowed 3 goals on just 17 shots before being pulled after the first period. Georgi Romanov came on in relief, making 9 stops on 11 shots the rest of the way.

Game recap: Capitals 5-1 win against Sharks

Dylan Strome opened the scoring for the Capitals at 7:33 of the first period, finishing a pass from Ovechkin with a wrist shot.

Aliaksei Protas got a loose puck in front and lifted a backhand into the net to make it 2-0 at 17:26. Less than two minutes later, Taylor Raddysh made it 3-0, firing a wrist shot from the right circle at 18:55.

“Oh, we can learn a lot from that team over there.” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said after the game. “Obviously, size in this league wins. And that will be for hereon going forward.”

“That’s something that we’ve talked a lot about here, going forward, we’re going to add some size. And we’re going to need to play with some size and grit and jam.”

San Jose got on the board at 6:19 of the third when Celebrini buried a backhand pass from Tyler Toffoli. Then, Trevor van Riemsdyk made it 4-1 just 40 seconds later, banking a shot off Romanov from behind the net for his first goal since March 9, 2023.

Ovechkin sealed the win at 10:54, deflecting Martin Fehervary’s shot to secure a 5-1 victory for the Capitals.