Things started well for the Caps, who got a goal from Justin
Williams to open the scoring just 43 seconds into the game. The Red Wings were
unable to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. Marcus Johansson got his
stick on a sliding loose puck at the top of the zone and nudged it to Evgeny
Kuznetsov. From there, Kuznetsov circled to the net where Johansson and
Williams were also headed. As Kuznetsov closed on the net and tried to get a
shot off, he was worked off the puck by Niklas Kronwall. However, Johansson was
occupying two Red Wings, and it created an opening for Williams to lean in,
stretch out his stick, and slide the puck past goalie Jimmy Howard for a 1-0
lead.
The Caps could not carry that lead into the first
intermission, though. Henrik Zetterberg tied the game with 4:20 left in the
period when the Red Wings won a battle for the puck off a faceoff in the Caps’
end, and Dylan Larkin found Zetterberg for a tap-in from the top of the crease.
The Caps’ streak of games avoiding consecutive losses was
put in jeopardy early in the second period when Tomas Jurco was left all alone
at the top of the crease to take a pass from Joakim Andersson and beat goalie
Braden Holtby past the left pad.
The game remained 2-1, in favor of the visitors, until
midway through the third period. Then, on a power play, the Caps worked the
puck down to the front of the Detroit net. Johansson tried to stuff it through
Howard’s pads, but the puck squirted out to Howard’s right. Alex Ovechkin
darted down from the faceoff circle to snap the puck into the back of the net
before Howard could stretch his leg across to defend the shot, and the game was
tied, 2-2, at the 10:51 mark.
That would be it for the hockey portion of the contest. In
the freestyle competition, T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov beat Howard, and
Holtby stopped Gustav Nyquist and Pavel Datsyuk, giving the Caps a 3-2 win.
Other stuff…
-- For Alex Ovechkin, his goal was his fourth power play
goal of the season, which seems light by his standards. However, through 25
games played last season he had six power play goals. He is one good game off
that pace.
-- Marcus Johansson added two assists, and he is on a nice
little run of late. Johansson is 2-5-7
in his last seven games.
-- They were doing oh, so good, too. That is, until the 2:35 mark of
overtime. The Caps, who are tied for the
third-fewest number of minor penalties this morning, took one – courtesy of
Alex Ovechkin – in overtime, putting the Red Wings on a 4-on-3 power play. The Red Wings managed two shots on goal, then
took a minor penalty of their own shortly after their power play expired. Ovechkin got the Caps lone shot on the ensuing
power play, but he could not get that second power play goal.
-- Uh, NHL?...T.J. Oshie did NOT score a shootout goal from
161 feet out. He’s good in that phase of
the game, but not THAT good…
-- The “Chorlov” defensive pair had a rough game. Both Detroit goals were scored from point-blank
range (a combined 19 feet, officially), and both Taylor Chorney and Dmitry
Orlov were the defensemen on the ice and not in position to help prevent those
scores.
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov gets the all-you-can-eat buffet coupon…
an assist, plus-1, three shots on goal, four shot attempts, a hit, a giveaway,
two takeaways, two blocked shots, 13 draws taken (okay, he lost nine of them)
in 20:46 of ice time. His assist on
Williams’ goal broke a season-long three-game streak without a point.
-- Don’t look now, but with his assist last night, Nicklas
Backstrom has points in his last six games (2-5-7) and in 12 of his last 15
contests (5-10-15). Does anyone put
together streaks more quietly than Backstrom?
-- Brooks Laich skated just two shifts in the third period
and one in overtime. His 9:00 in ice
time was not his lowest of the season, but he could see it from there (7:16
against the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 28th).
-- The Caps returned to their stingy ways, shots
allowed-wise. The Red Wings finished
with 23 shots on goal, breaking a four-game streak in which the Caps allowed more
than 30 shots to opponents. The
consistency was nice, too. Detroit had
declining shot totals by period, and in no period did they reach double digits.
-- It made for an easier night for Braden Holtby, who earned
the game’s second star, and for the 11th time in his last 13 games allowed two
or fewer goals (11-1-1, 1.74, .949, one shutout).
In the end…
The Caps won the season series against the Red Wings with
two wins in three games. All were
hard-fought and played close. All of
them were one-goal decisions, and the Caps taking two of them is a nice
achievement, given that the Red Wings came into this game with the most wins in
one-goal decisions in the league (11).
It was also good to see Alex Ovechkin score a power play
marker, even if it came more from being opportunistic than from a standard
set-play one-timer (watching Ovechkin jumping on a loose puck in front of the
net brings to mind the adjective “rabid”).
There is no rest and no time to ponder the win, though, for
the Caps head out on the road for a three-game trip – two games in Florida
against the Panthers and the Lightning, and one in Pittsburgh. It will be a test of a trip.
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