While Hurricane Sandy was lashing the east coast with high winds, rain, and Twitter commentary, the Washington Capitals wrapped up their first long road
trip of the season with a visit to the Twin Cities to face the Minnesota Wild
on Monday night. The Caps entered the
game winless in three straight (0-2-1), while the Wild were meandering around with
a 3-2-2 season mark.
The Caps came into this contest having difficulty scoring on
their power play – 3-for-20 for the season and 0-for-14 dating back to the
third period of Game 3. Their
difficulties continued when they could not convert a penalty taken by Minnesota
defenseman Tom Gilbert early in the first period. The problem the Caps have been having on
their power play has not been taking shots as much as it has been getting those
shots on net. On this power play Alex
Ovechkin managed to get three shots off, but all missed.
The Caps returned the favor of taking a penalty mid-way
through the period when Jason Chimera was sent off for holding. He was followed to the penalty box by John
Carlson, who shot the puck off the rink for a delay-of-game penalty to give the
Wild more than 90 seconds of 5-on-3 time.
The Wild would not need all of it to get the game’s first goal. Dany Heatley ripped a shot over Caps’ goalie
Michal Neuvirth’s blocker to give the Wild a 1-0 lead at 10:58 of the first
period.
The Wild converted the back half of the power play on an
unfortunate play for the Caps. From the
right wing faceoff circle Devin Setoguchi attempted to send a pass across to
Heatley at the left wing hash marks. But
Jay Beagle got his stick on the pass on its way through. The trouble for the Caps was that Neuvirth
was sliding across to defend against Heatley.
Beagle got too much of the puck and redirected it into the net through
the space that Neuvirth vacated. That
was how the clubs went to the first intermission, the Wild up by a 2-0 margin.
The second period was marred for the Caps by their wearing a
path to the penalty box. The Caps took
three minor penalties over a 14:31 stretch of the second period – Troy Brouwer,
Matt Hendrick, and Mike Ribeiro being the culprits – but the Wild could not
convert due to Neuvirth’s superb performance in goal. Neuvirth turned away all 11 power play shots
he faced in the period, and it seemed to provide the Caps with a spark. The Caps outshot the Wild 6-0 in the last
3:11 of the period, but Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom was up to the task,
turning all of them away. The period
ended as it started, with the Wild holding onto their 2-0 lead.
The momentum the Caps established at the end of the second
period carried over early into the third period as they pinned the Wild in
their own end and kept the home team playing defense. The pressure paid off when Ryan Suter was
sent off at the 2:44 mark for holding, giving the Caps their second power play
opportunity of the game. The Caps
futility on the man advantage continued in the technical sense, as they failed
to convert in the 2:00 of power play time allotted to them. But with the Caps still exerting pressure in
the Minnesota end, they did convert just four seconds after Suter’s penalty
expired. Nicklas Backstrom notched his
first goal of the year when he put back a shot by Alex Ovechkin, the rebound
for which the Wild’s Backstrom had trouble controlling.
The Caps kept applying the pressure and had an excellent
opportunity with the clock winding down to the five minute mark when Mike
Ribeiro and Brooks Laich had a 2-on-1 break.
However, Backstrom turned aside Laich’s redirect of a Ribeiro pass with
his right pad, and the chance was no more.
Despite outshooting the Wild, 17-8, in the final period, the Caps could
get no closer. Backstrom made the
one-goal margin stand up, and the Caps had their fourth consecutive loss, their
road trip finishing with an 0-3-1 mark.
Notes: The loss left
the Caps winless on the road (0-3-2), while they are undefeated at home
(4-0-0)… The power play is now 0-for-16 over its last six-plus games… The
penalty kill, which started the season 17-for-17, is only 8-for-13 over its
last four games…
Wild 2 – Capitals 1