First Period
The Caps came into the game with the seventh-best record in
the league when scoring first in games (19-7-0), so it was a good sign when
Andre Burakovsky put the Caps on top in the seventh minute of the first
period. Michael Kempny got the play
started when he kept a loose puck from exiting the offensive zone at the left
point. He fed it to Burakovsky, who
circled around the top of the left wing circle before sliding the puck to Matt
Niskanen at the top of the zone.
Niskanen moved the puck to T.J. Oshie at the top of the right wing
circle. After stepping up to draw the
defense to his side, Oshie fed the puck in front where Burakovsky was
crossing. He re-directed Oshie’s feed
past the right pad of goalie Semyon Varlamov, and the Caps had a 1-0 lead at
the 6:31 mark.
Washington scored again on a power play late in the period,
or so they thought. Nicklas Backstrom
gathered a loose puck in a manner reminiscent of Lars Eller’s Stanley Cup
winning goal last spring, fishing it out from behind Varlamov and snapping it
into the back of the net, but video replay showed that a referee’s whistle blew
the play dead before Backstrom got the blade of his stick on the puck, and the
goal was overturned.
-- Washington had a 12-9 edge in shots on goal, but Colorado
out-attempted the Caps, 29-21.
-- The Caps had 14 blocked shots in the first period, eight
skaters recording at least one and led by John Carlson (three).
-- Lars Eller was the only Capital winning a majority of his
faceoffs (4-for-6), the team going 7-for-18 overall (38.9 percent).
Second Period
Colorado scored in the first minute to tie the game, Nathan
MacKinnon taking a rebound off the back wall and banking the puck off the right
skate of goalie Pheonix Copley at the near post and over the goal line. The Caps challenged the play as being
offside, but the referees, after consulting the video, declined to overturn the
original ruling, and the Caps were put on a penalty kill as a result.
Washington regained the lead in the ninth minute of the
period. On a power play, an Alex
Ovechkin drive was muffled, but not controlled by Varlamov. The puck dribbled behind him, and as it was
edging to the goal line, Evgeny Kuznetsov poked it home as he was being upended
by Patrik Nemeth, the Caps up by a 2-1 margin 8:38 into the period.
-- Colorado had a 16-15 edge in shots for the period, but it
was Washington with a 29-27 edge in shot attempts
-- John Carlson matched his first period total with three
more blocked shots in the second period.
-- The Caps won 11 of 20 faceoffs in the second period (55.0
percent).
Third Period
The Caps extended their lead in the first minute of the third
period on an odd goal. A Jakub Vrana shot
was stopped and leaked out to the right wing wall where Matt Niskanen jumped on
it. Wasting no effort, he snapped a shot
at the Colorado cage where Varlamov got his blocker on it. However, the puck deflected off the bottom of
the blocker and into the far side of the net to give the Caps a two-goal lead
34 seconds into the period.
Colorado got that one back less than five minutes later with
Gabriel Landeskog stretched out and poked the puck into the slot where Mikko
Rantanen collected it, turned, and snapped a shot past Copley to make it 3-2 at
the 5:10 mark.
Things got interesting mid-way through the period. Ian Cole laid out Evgeny Kuznetsov in open
ice, and Tom Wilson was having none of it.
He tore into Cole, raining Thor’s Hammer on and about Cole’s head and shoulders
to remind him that taking such liberties have consequences. Cole was assessed a major penalty for
interference, a fighting major, and a game misconduct. Wilson got an instigator and a fighting
major. Unfortunately, the Caps could not
convert was would be an abbreviated major power play.
Failing to take advantage of that opportunity would haunt
the Caps later. Colin Wilson tied the
game with less than three minutes in regulation when, as he was approaching the
goal line extended to Copley’s right, he snapped a shot that ramped up off Copley’s
stick and through the pads to make it a 3-3 game with 2:07 left.
Overtime
It was a back-and-forth affair in the extra session, and the
game came down to a bit of justice and the sort of goal Caps fans will recall
from happier times. The game-deciding
play started in odd fashion. Dmitry
Orlov shoved one Avalanche player into another behind the Capitals’ net,
freeing the puck out in front to Alex Ovechkin.
He turned up ice and spotted Kuznetsov breaking out. Taking the stretch feed from Ovechkin,
Kuznetsov skated in alone on Varlamov and slipped the puck between the pads to
end the contest 4:12 into the overtime.
Other stuff…
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov’s power play goal was his 27th
as a Capital, tying him with Joe Juneau for 30th place on the
franchise all-time list.
-- The two-goal game was Kuznetsov’s 11th as a
Capital and his second this season, the first one coming on Opening Night
against Boston.
-- With an assist to go with his two goals, Kuznetsov
recorded his second three-point game this season and first since he went 1-3-4
in a 5-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on October 10th. It was the 20th three-point game
in his career, tying him with Calle Johansson and Sergei Gonchar for 10th
place on the all-time franchise list.
-- Ovechkin springing Kuznetsov with a long stretch pass up
the middle for a breakaway goal through the five-home in overtime. Remind you of anything? ...
-- Ovechkin earned the primary assist on both Kuznetsov
goals, his fourth two-assist game this season and 102nd of his
career, second in franchise history (Nicklas Backstrom: 144).
-- Matt Niskanen had a goal and an assist, his fourth two-point
game this season and 28th as a Capital. Those points Niskanen recorded were his first
points on home ice since he had an assist in a 6-3 win over the New Jersey
Devils on November 30th. He
snapped a 14-game streak without a point on home ice.
-- The 42 shots on goal recorded by the Caps is a
season-high on home ice and the third game this season in which they had 40 or
more shots on goal. All three of those
games have come in the last 15 days (44 in a 6-3 loss in Toronto to the Maple
Leafs and 40 in a 4-3 win over Calgary Flames).
They are 2-1-0 in those games.
-- Brooks Orpik was the only Capital without a shot on goal
(or a shot attempt, for that matter), but he did have five blocked shots.
-- Pheonix Copley ended a personal four-game losing streak
(0-3-1).
-- Andre Burakovsky can smile. His goal was his second in his last 20 games
and his first in a home ice win since the win over New Jersey on November 20th.
In the end…
This could have been a disastrous game for the Caps. They blew a two-goal lead to a team that has
been struggling and played with fire in allowing the game to go to a 3-on-3
overtime where Colorado’s offensively-skilled forwards can wreak havoc. But the Russian troika came through in the
end, Dmitry Orlov with a timely hit to free the puck, Alex Ovechkin picking it
up and spotting a streaking teammate, and Evgeny Kuznetsov sending Caps fans
home in a happier mood than it seemed they might when Colorado tied the game
late. But while there were ragged spots,
not to mention quick whistles that negated goals and scoring chances for the
Caps than might have made this a blowout, the team played a decent game against
an opponent that almost slipped out with a win.
Two points are two points. Take
them, and move on. Before the referees blow another whistle...
