recap ducks

There’s no such thing as a perfect game in hockey, but the Caps took some strides in the right direction with their 3-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena. Logan Thompson stopped all 19 shots sent his way to notch his first shutout of the season and the fifth of his NHL career.

Thompson now has two career victories over Anaheim (2-2-1) and both of them have come via the shutout route. In his last eight appearances (seven starts), Thompson is 7-0-1 with a 1.69 GAA and a .943 save pct.

Although the Caps have been among the top five to seven teams in the League in goals against for a good chunk of 2024-25, Thompson’s shutout is Washington’s first of the season.

“I was actually surprised to hear that,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “But yeah, it was great. He’s been fantastic all year for us, and to get that shutout tonight – and it wasn’t a Picasso the whole way through; that second period he was tested and made some big saves – I’m happy for him to get his first shutout.”

Thompson made an early save on Anaheim’s Troy Terry in the first – when the game was still scoreless – and he denied Ryan Strome on a 2-on-1 rush in the middle frame. And early in the third, he made a stellar glove save on Isac Lundestrom from in tight on another 2-on-1 rush.

“It’s always nice to get that out of the way,” says Thompson of the shutout. “I don’t really get shutouts that often, so it’s always nice to get one.”

Thompson also got a fortuitous backcheck from Ryan Strome’s younger brother Dylan, who broke up a 2-on-0 down low midway through the middle period to prevent Anaheim from cutting what was a 2-0 Washington lead at that point.

“They had a 2-on-0; it was a weird bounce,” recounts Thompson. “Credit to Stromer. That’s how we’ve been playing all year. We play for each other, and good for him to lay down and break up the play. It could have easily gone into the net and changed then direction of the game.”

Ethen Frank continued to show the hot mitts, scoring his second goal in as many games and extending his career-opening point streak to three games (two goals, one assist). With points in each of his first three NHL games, he has joined some select company as just the sixth player in franchise history to achieve the feat. He joins Alex Ovechkin (eight games), Andre Burakovsky, Milan Novy and Ryan Walter (four each) and Jan Bulis (three).

Frank scored Washington’s third goal in the final minute of the second period, benefiting from some wall work from Duhaime and a sublime feed from P-L Dubois on a 2-on-1 rush. Frank took his time to survey and then let it rip, beating Anaheim’s John Gibson on the glove side.

“There’s a lot of wall battles won by Dewey in the [defensive] zone,” recounts Frank. “And then Dubes made a really good pass – nice and flat – coming into the zone. I just picked my spot and let it rip as hard as I could.”

John Carlson scored a goal that actually counted; he finally has more actual goals (four) than he has goals called back (three) on the season. Carlson broke up an Anaheim breakout in neutral ice, then followed the puck back into the offensive zone, where he found a loose puck in the slot and dropped a bar down dart for an unassisted goal that made it 2-0 at 14:30 of the first.

Even then, Carlson had his doubts. The long arm of the video review law has denied him previously and repeatedly.

“[The Ducks] were talking with the ref though, so you never know,” quips Carlson. “When you’re going through something like this, you don’t take for granted a real one that counts.”

Carlson’s goal was his first since Nov. 27 at Tampa, the night before Thanksgiving.

The game’s first goal was the game-winner, and that one belongs to Brandon Duhaime, who also earned second star designation by adding an assist on Frank’s goal and turning in his usual gritty workmanlike performance. Duhaime’s game-winning goal was his first in nearly 22 months, since March 19, 2023 when he supplied difference maker in a Minnesota Wild win over Washington in St. Paul.

There was no doubt about Duhaime’s assist; his play on the wall created the 2-on-1 that resulted in Frank’s goal, but both Frank and Jakob Chychrun appeared to have possibly scored that first goal – on the rebound of Chychrun’s initial shot – at 7:34 of the first, so it was quite a surprise when the goal announcement came. Frank and Chychrun appeared to shoot it simultaneously, but it apparently caught some of Duhaime’s body or equipment on its way to the back of the net.

The author of that game-winner is still unsure.

“Someone has to tell me; I honestly have no clue,” shrugs Duhaime. “I didn’t know I was involved in that one, and then it came over the sound speaker and they said it was me, and the guys were going nuts.”

But like Carlson, Duhaime was pleased to break a bit of a goal drought any way he could. Tuesday’s tally against the Ducks was his first since Nov. 18 in Utah.

“Hopefully that kick starts it and gets it going,” says Duhaime. “Usually, that’s the way you get out of a slump; it hits off you or something, or you get a good bounce. Hopefully, that’s the case.”

Results haven’t been an issue for the Capitals, who have yet to lose more than two games in a row. Washington is at its high-water mark of the season, but its game hasn’t looked on brand for the last few weeks.

They played a strong first frame, taking a 2-0 lead on the Duhaime and Carlson goals, and Thompson helped them through their second-period struggles. Washington mostly locked it down in the third. While they still seek to find and return to the standard they established earlier in the season, the Capitals can take plenty of comfort in the results they’re getting. Tuesday’s win extends their home points streak to 11 games (8-0-3) and their overall points streak is now at eight (5-0-3).

“There's something to say about teams that can work through rough patches and still collect points,” says Caps center Nic Dowd, who won eight of his 10 draws on the night. “In saying that, I think the biggest thing and what's important right now is that we're identifying what we're doing wrong in some instances, and we're identifying what we need to get better at, and then we're going to work on that so when we can start playing better hockey, collecting more points, and feel better about our game.

"But yeah, there's definitely something to say about teams that can figure out ways to win hockey games.”