The Washington Capitals fell to the Minnesota Wild, 4-3 in a shootout, Thursday night at Capital One Arena in Washington. The loss moves the Capitals’ record to 25-10-3 (53 points) on the season.
The Capitals opened the scoring midway through the first frame with a goal from Tom Wilson, but the Wild answered just 65 seconds later for a 1-1 tie. The Wild tallied again late in the frame for a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
The second would see Alex Ovechkin notch his 18th goal of the season and third in three games since returning from a fractured fibula on the power play; the goal puts him within 23 goals of tying Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record.
Martin Fehervary and Marco Rossi would add tallies in the third to send the game to extra time; with no scoring coming in overtime, the clubs advanced to the shootout, the first such instance for Washington this season.
Matt Boldy would score the lone goal in the skills competition to give Minnesota the victory.
LINEUP
Charlie Lindgren (10-8-0, 2.70 GAA, .900 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Capitals. Marc-Andre Fleury (6-3-1, 2.81 GAA, .898 sv%) got the start in net for the visiting Wild. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane – Lars Eller — Ivan Miroshnichenko
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Taylor Raddysh
Rasmus Sandin — John Carlson
Martin Fehervary — Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Scratched: Jakub Vrana, Dylan McIlrath, Alexander Alexeyev. (Hendrix Lapierre was re-assigned to Hershey on Sunday, 12/29/24).
Injured: Sonny Milano (upper-body), Nicklas Backstrom (hip), T.J. Oshie (back).
1ST PERIOD
After a relatively quiet start to this one, the Capitals finally opened the scoring with a close-range tally from Tom Wilson (15) at 10:19 of the middle frame. Rasmus Sandin (12) had the primary helper.
But lead lasted just 65 seconds. Ryan Hartman (5) tied the game at 11:24. Z. Bogosian (5) and J. Eriksson Ek (11) had the helpers.
The Wild added a late short-handed goal from Yakov Trenin (3) to make it 2-1 at the first intermission.
The Capitals led in five-on-five shot attempts, 24-12, and expected goals for 1.22 to 0.44 in the first period.
2ND PERIOD
The Capitals would get the equalizer late in the middle frame thanks to a goal from Alex Ovechkin on a four-minute power play following a a high-stick to Martin Fehervary. The goal marked Ovechkin’s third in three games since returning from a fractured fibula; Dylan Strome recorded the assist on the goal.
The Capitals led in shots, 21-18 through two frames and 6-5 in Shot Attempts through forty minutes.
3RD PERIOD
The Capitals took their second lead of the night thanks to a goal from Martin Fehervary with just over three and a half minutes gone by in the third; Pierre-Luc Dubois picked up the assist on the goal.
Seconds after Tom Wilson had a goal washed out for a high stick, Marco Rossi notched his 15th goal of the season to knot the score at 3-3; Ryan Hartman and Jonas Brodin were credited with the assist.
The two teams were unable to solve the deadlock through regulation, extending the game to overtime.
OVERTIME
The two clubs failed to score through the five-minute overtime period, pushing the game to a shootout, the first time the Caps have gone to the skills competition this season.
SHOOTOUT
Dylan Strome began the shootout for Washington, failing to beat Marc-Andre Fleury. Mats Zuccarello likewise, couldn’t solve Charlie Lindgren in the first round.
Pierre-Luc Dubois’ attempt also failed to fool Fluery; his miss was followed by Matt Boldy successfully beating Lindgren.
Alex Ovechkin was subsequently stopped, giving the Wild a victory in the shootout.
The night ended with Washington trailing Minnesota 33-31 in Shots On Goal, while dominating in the faceoff dot, 63.6%-36.4%. The Caps scored on one of their three power plays, while holding the Wild scoreless in two opportunities.
SHAVINGS (From Capitals PR)
- Tom Wilson scored his 15th goal of the season to open the scoring. Wilson becomes the fourth Capital to reach the 15-goal mark this season (Alex Ovechkin: 17; Connor McMichael: 16; Aliaksei Protas: 16).
- Washington is one of two teams in the NHL to have four players with 15 or more goals (also Tampa Bay).
- Dylan Strome’s assist on Alex Ovechkin’s second period goal marked his 30th of the season, just the fourth time he has reached the mark. He has also assisted on 13 of The Great Eight’s 18 goals on the season.
- NHL Box Score
