The Washington Capitals broke a two-game losing streak by
doing what they have struggled doing this season – getting ahead of their
opponent early – scoring first and last on their way to a 3-1 in over the
Minnesota Wild at Capital One Arena.
First Period
After a quiet start to the game, the Capitals and Wild
exchanged power play goals less than three minutes apart mid-way through the
first period. The Caps opened the
scoring on a man advantage when Nicklas Backstrom took a pass from John Carlson
and fed Evgeny Kuznetsov at the goal line.
Kuznetsov slid the puck to T.J. Oshie at the hash marks at the edge of
the right wing circle, and Oshie one-timed it past goalie Alex Stalock.9:42
into the period to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
Nino Niederreiter evened things up when he patiently waited
for the puck to come to him off a scramble in front of goalie Braden Holtby and
fired into the open side of the net to Holtby’s right to make it a 1-1 game at
the 12:02 mark.
Less than a minute later the Caps had the lead back. From
his knees, Oshie fed the puck from the left wing faceoff circle to Matt
Niskanen at the left point. Niskanen
moved the puck across to Dmitry Orlov, who one-timed the pass off the near post
and behind Stalock at the 12:46 mark to make it a 2-1 game, a lead the Caps
took to the first intermission.
Minnesota had a 19-17 edge in shot attempts, but the Caps
had a 13-12 edge in shots on goal over the first 20 minutes.
Second Period
Two minutes into the period the Caps had a glorious chance
to add to their lead, Chandler Stephenson getting an edge on the Wild defense
as he was circling to the net. He fed
the puck back to Backstrom trailing on the play, and Backstrom, from the left
wing circle fired at what looked like an open net. However, defenseman Jonas Brodin got his
right foot out and blocked the shot away to foil the chance.
The Caps got a scare nine minutes into the period when an
attempt pass from Chris Stewart rode up the stick of Alex Ovechkin and struck
him in the face. He went off under his
own power, but bleeding quite a bit.
There would be no scoring, though, and the Caps took their
2-1 lead to the second intermission.
Minnesota had a 9-8 edge in shots on goal and a 17-14 edge in shot
attempts.
Third Period
The teams went back and forth with nothing to show for it
over the first 15 minutes of the period.
Then, the Caps had a chance to extend their lead when Chandler
Stephenson broke in around the Wild defense and was tripped, leading to a
penalty shot. However, his attempt to
sneak one under the right pad of Stalock was stopped, and the teams played on.
The Caps finally broke through on the front-end of a
four-minute power play, courtesy of a double-minor penalty taken by Ryan Suter
for high-sticking. Alex Ovechkin took a
pass from Nicklas Backstrom at the top of the left wing circle, stepped up, and
instead of shooting, passed to Evgeny Kuznetsov camped at the top of the
paint. Kuznetsov corralled the unruly
puck and nudged it past Stalock to give the Caps a 3-1 lead at the 17:23 mark. The Caps could not convert on the back half
of the extended power play, but they had what they needed for the 3-1 win.
Other stuff…
-- T.J. Oshie got his tenth goal of the season in this
contest, Game 21 of the season. Last
year, when he finished the season with 33 goals, he got his tenth goal in Game
22.
-- Oshie had two points (goal, assist), giving him 32
multi-point games as a Capital, breaking a tie with Dave Christian for 33rd
place on the Caps’ all-time list and tying him with Ulf Dahlen for 32nd
place.
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov also had a goal and an assist for his 47th
career multi-point game as a Capital, breaking a tie with Jeff Halpern for 23rd
place in team history.
-- The Caps finished the game with 43 shots on goal, a team
high for the season, and the first time in four games with 40 or more shots that
they won in regulation (they had two overtime wins).
-- For those asking the hockey gods to put the spirit of
shooting more in Kuznetsov’s stick, he had seven shots on goal to lead the
team.
-- The Caps did allow a power play goal, the third game in a
row they did so. That makes three times
this season that the Caps have allowed teams power play goals in three or more
consecutive games.
-- This was just the seventh time in 21 games that the Caps
scored first in a game. They are now
6-0-1 in such games.
-- Brooks Orpik was a real thumper in this game, credited
with eight of the Caps’ 29 hits. Taylor
Chorney had four blocked shots to lead both teams.
-- John Carlson skated 24:55 in this game. With the 24:53 he skated against the Colorado
Avalanche on Thursday night, that give him consecutive games with less than 25
minutes in ice time for the first time this season and, in fact, only his third
game all season under 25 minutes.
-- Braden Holtby shook off a poor performance against the
Nashvill Predators to stop 30 of 31 shots.
Even with that off night against the Preds, Holtby is 7-1-0, 2.31, .928
in his last eight appearances.
In the end…
This was one of those games in which the losing team might
say, “if it wasn’t for (insert name of goalie here), it could have been six or
seven goals for the other guys.” The
Caps pressed all night with perhaps their most impressive night of the season
in applying persistent pressure over three periods. Alex Stalock was superb in goal for the Wild,
who might have seen the competitive portion of the game end far sooner than it
did but for his efforts. He kept the
Wild in it late into a third period that saw the Caps pour 22 shots on goal to
the Minnesota net.
For all the eyeball and empirical analysis, hockey breaks
down pretty simply. If you score first,
chances are you win. It is something the
Caps have not done enough of this season, but tonight it was a solid start that
set the table for a solid three course meal of basic hockey. It wasn’t fancy, but it was tasty and
satisfying. Keep this dish on the menu.
