First Period
The teams went back and forth unproductively in the first
period, the teams going to the first intermission in a scoreless tie. But the Caps might have been lucky to get out
of the period in that scoreless tie.
They had one shot attempt in the last 8:33 of the period, that being a
shot on goal by Tom Wilson with six seconds left in the frame.
As a group, the Caps had just 12 shot attempts overall, five
of them by Alex Ovechkin (three on goal), none of the other Caps with more than
one. Washington blocked more Wild shots
(seven) than they had their own shots on goal (six).
And what’s up with the official scoring? The teams combined for two credited hits in
the first period, both by the Wild.
Second Period
Tom Wilson got the Caps off and running early in the second
period. Taking a pass from Alex
Ovechkin, he wired a shot on the far side past the left arm of goalie Devan
Dubnyk on the Caps’ first shot attempt of the period, 59 seconds in.
Alex Ovechkin doubled the Caps’ lead just under five minutes
later. Andre Burakovsky dug out a loose
puck along the goal line to the right of Dubnyk, and he had room to slide a
pass out to Ovechkin at the rim of the right wing circle. Ovechkin snapped a shot that Dubnyk got some
of, but not enough to keep it from slithering over the goal line at the 5:51
mark to make it 2-0. That would how the
teams went to the locker room after 40 minutes.
The Caps did a much better job getting shots off and getting
them on net in the period, recording 21 shot attempts and nine shots on
goal. Ovechkin finished the period with
nine of the Caps’ 33 shot attempts over two periods.
Third Period
The Caps had early success in the third period on a solo
effort by Burakovsky. Gathering the puck
in his own end, he weaved his way through the neutral zone and crossed the Wild
blue line in control. Drifting to his
left to get a better shooting angle, he had room to snap a shot past a baffled
Dubnyk and it was 3-0, 2:29 into the period.
Minnesota got one back when Nino Niederreiter managed three
whacks at a loose puck in the blue paint without a Capital (ahem...Dmitry
Orlov) getting a stick or a body on him.
The third time was the charm from just off the post to goalie Philipp
Grubauer’s left, and it was 3-1 at the 4:25 mark.
The Caps extended their lead late on an odd play. Tom Wilson gloved a loose puck down in the
offensive zone, and it might have ended up being a hand pass onto the stick of
Alex Ovechkin, but Wild defenseman Ryan Suter intervened and got his stick on
it. Suter being unable to control the
puck, Ovechkin stepped in an snapped a shot at the Wild goal. Dubnyk stopped it but could not keep it from
trickling off to his right. Nicklas
Backstrom stepped in, and just before the puck slid by the far post, he tucked
into the net to make it 4-1, 15:06 into the period.
Minnesota did get one back just under two minutes later on
an Eric Staal power play goal with Dubnyk pulled for a 6-on-4. However, Tom Wilson put an end to any glimmer
of hope of a miracle in Minnesota with an empty netter at the 17:46 mark for
the final 5-2 margin.
Other stuff…
-- Alex Ovechkin had a goal and three assists, his
four-point night giving him 1,100 career points. He is the 61st player in NHL
history to reach the 1,100 point mark and the third active player to reach it
(Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau being the others, Jaromir Jagr now playing in
Europe).
-- Ovechkin’s four points gives him 24 games with four or
more points in his career, second only to Sidney Crosby (31) since the
2004-2005 lockout.
-- Tom Wilson had his third multi-goal game of the season
and his second game with three or more points.
For Wilson, it is a career high in goals in a season (nine).
-- Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist, his 11th
multi-point game this season and his fifth goal in his last six games.
-- Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist for his third
multi-point game of the season, all of them coming on the road (the others in
Dallas and in Detroit). He now has
points in five of his last eight games (3-3-6).
-- Ovechkin had seven of the Caps’ 27 shots on goal and 13
of the club’s 49 shot attempts.
-- When the Wild scored a power play goal late, it broke a
string of four straight games with the Caps not allowing a power play
goal. The Caps killed 15 in a row over
those four games and this one until that goal.
-- The Caps were not credited with a hit in the first
period, but they finished the game with 12.
-- Jay Beagle was the only Capital taking more than one
faceoff who finished over 50 percent (10-for-16/62.5 percent).
-- Phillip Grubauer got five goals of goal support, the most
goals scored by the Caps in front of him in any game this season. With 32 saves on 34 shots, he now has a save
percentage of .931 over his last 15 appearances.
In the end…
You could say that for one game, at least, the Caps applied
a hard-earned lesson. They got out to a
lead and held it, unlike the late-game collapse against Winnipeg on
Tuesday. The strange thing about the
Caps at the moment, though, is that they are 3-0-2 in their last five
games. And their offense has been rather
potent over that stretch with 19 goals (3.80/game). If they can take this result and close teams
down late in the same fashion as they did the Wild, it will be a successful
road trip.
