Facing the Dallas Stars – the NHL’s stingiest defensive team – on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, the Caps found the back of the net five times against Stars netminder Jake Oettinger, just the second time in seven games they’ve managed more than two goals against him. But that rare offensive largesse against a netminding nemesis wasn’t enough for two points; the Caps fell 6-5 to the Stars in what was a bizarre contest from the outset.
The Caps came roaring out of the gates and had a terrific start, but they didn’t score their first goal until the second half of the game, when they were down 4-0. Jason Robertson had a natural hat trick in the first six minutes of the second period. Logan Thompson was pulled from a start for just the second time in 110 starts as a Capital. Charlie Lindgren came on in relief and closed the door, except for a pair of bad bounce goals that ultimately saddled him with a relief loss. Washington scored as many as five goals on home ice against the Stars for the first time in more than 36 years, since when the Stars were still located in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” and known as the Minnesota North Stars.
And finally, the Caps are now saddled with consecutive home ice setbacks for the first time since mid-January of this year.
Down four goals to the Stars in the second period, there was no quit in the Caps. Dallas struck for four goals in the middle period, but the Caps notched three of their own – including two on the power play – to serve notice they would not be folding up and giving up.
Down two goals heading into the third, the Caps knew they needed the next one to mount a comeback. But they didn’t get it; Roope Hintz’s backhanded centering feed rattled off the stick of Caps defenseman Martin Fehervary and in at 1:23 of the third, lifting Dallas to a 6-3 lead. The Caps didn’t quit then, either.
Justin Sourdif scored on a goalmouth scramble at 12:55 of the third, and Ryan Leonard beat Oettinger with a short side dart with Lindgren pulled for an extra attacker. Alas, it was as close as the Caps would get on this night.
“That's a tough game because I thought our start was exactly how we scripted it and exactly how we wanted to come out,” laments Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We knew it was going to be important, and we did exactly what we wanted to do. Even when they score first, I think we're still fine. And then it just gets away from us a little bit with some of the bounces, and next thing you know, it's in the back of our net.
“It was unfortunate that we dig ourselves a hole; we tried to fight our way back. But yeah, we did a lot of good things. We didn’t fold. We kept fighting and could have tied that game very easily, so it’s unfortunate.”
The Caps put together a strong start in the early minutes of Tuesday’s game against Dallas. They had the puck in the offensive zone and were buzzing around right from the game’s first shift. Unfortunately for them, the offensive zone time produced mostly that, zone time.
By the time the Stars grabbed a 1-0 lead on their first shot on goal of the game – from Joel Kiviranta at 8:56 of the first – the Caps had rolled up 10 shot attempts, but Oettinger had to make just three saves. Five attempts were blocked and two missed the mark.
The first period ended up being a low event affair; the Caps held a 7-6 lead in shots on net after 20 minutes of play. With just over a minute remaining in the first, the Stars went on a carryover power play. And while Washington killed off the first period portion of the penalty, Robertson struck on the carryover portion of the power play at the 23-second mark of the second, beating Thompson on the short side under the glove to double the Dallas lead to 2-0.
Less than three minutes later, Robertson fired from high on the opposite side of the ice, and his shot from the top of the right circle eluded Thompson high on the stick side, pushing the Stars to a 3-0 advantage at 3:18.
Robertson completed his natural hat trick – and chased Thompson to the bench – in a span of 5 minutes and 20 seconds on just three shots when his wrist shot through traffic from the left point found its way behind Thompson at 5:43.
Lindgren came on and made a couple of stellar stops on Stars center Wyatt Johnston, then helped the Caps kill off a penalty for too many men on the ice. And when Dallas was also deemed guilty of having too many dudes on the ice, Jordan Kyrou put the Caps on the board with a power-play goal at 11:00 of the second, trimming the lead to 4-1.
Unfortunately for Washington, Dallas went back up by four when Mikko Rantanen’s shot caught the knob of Lindgren’s stick and diverted into the net at 14:50.
But Boone Jenner converted a nifty indirect feed from Leonard at 16:58, and Jakob Chychrun scored on the power play with half a minute left in the second. Washington was down one after one, and it was down two after two, and needing an early goal in the third to claw its way back.
Hintz scored at 1:23 of the third, but again, the Caps kept at it. Sourdif and Leonard brought them within one, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough. The Caps are now 1-4-0 against Western Conference opponents this season, with all four losses coming on home ice.
“Honestly, I thought we did a lot of really good things,” says Chychrun. “A couple of crazy bounces from them that end up in the back of the net, but we stuck with it.
“Right from that first shift of the game, it felt like we were going. We dug ourselves a hole, but we didn’t stop fighting. It’s encouraging, and we’ve just got to keep pushing here.”
Dallas lost star defenseman Miro Heiskanen to an upper body injury after he took just a single shift in the second period. The Stars now head to Columbus where they will conclude their two-game trip on Thursday.
“It was a little bit of a funny game,” says Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “I thought it was a heavy, hard game. They had a really strong push at the beginning; obviously from where they were at with their last game, we expected that. I thought we weathered it defensively pretty well.
“I thought both teams got some bounces. We got a lot of bounces, so did they. So it was kind of funny that way, but pretty even the rest of the way.”
