Two nights after they engaged in a wild and freewheeling offensive showcase against the Senators in Ottawa, the Caps came home and played a tight, taut defensive affair against the visiting Detroit Red Wings. Washington forged a 2-0 lead early in the second period, but it was unable to build upon or protect that cushion, falling 3-2 to the Wings in overtime.
Caps Fall on Larkin Goal in OT
Caps claim at least a point for seventh time in as many games, but fall in overtime for third time in five home games
Detroit's Dylan Larkin scored the game-winning goal off the rush at 1:37 of the extra session, taking a feed from Lucas Raymond and snapping a shot past Vitek Vanecek from the inside of the left circle to complete the Red Wings' comeback.
"It was tight out there 5-on-5," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We had a couple of power-play goals; there wasn't a lot of chances out there either way. They're probably in single digits and we're maybe in single digits, or just hit double digits. It was a game where there wasn't a lot of room, there wasn't a lot of space."
The Caps went shorthanded before the game was half a minute old, and although Detroit fired a couple of shots on Vanecek, the game remained scoreless until late in the first when the Caps got their own first kick at the power play can.
Late in that power play - and early in the final minute of the first - the Caps broke through with their first power-play goal since opening night, breaking an 0-for-16 slide. Shooting from one knee after a sweet cross-crease feed from Lars Eller, Alex Ovechkin was initially denied by the right pad of Wings goalie Thomas Greiss, but he collected scooped the rebound over the goaltender to give the Caps a 1-0 lead at 19:05 of the first.
Detroit got its second power play of the evening in the final few ticks of the first, with nearly all of the man advantage occupying the beginning of the second. This time the Caps' penalty killing outfit held the Wings without a shot on net, and soon afterwards, Washington doubled its lead with its second goal in as many power play chances.
Going to the net in the Red Wings' end, Eller drew a hooking call on Detroit defenseman Danny Dekeyser. The blueliner barely had a chance to be seated before Evgeny Kuznetsov made it a 2-0 game at the four-minute mark of the middle frame, only four seconds after Dekeyser was sent to the box.
T.J. Oshie won a right dot draw and Conor Sheary slid the puck to Kuznetsov, who beat Greiss through the five-hole from the bottom of the right circle to make it a 2-0 game.
Washington's offense was largely non-existent for the rest of the second; the Caps managed only two shots on net in the final 15 minutes and 27 seconds of the middle period, and just one of those shots - an Eller deflection - came at even strength.
Meanwhile, the Wings cut into the Caps' lead just after the midpoint of the second. Washington outnumbered the Wings on a board battle along the left half-wall, but when the Wings came away with the puck, Vladislav Namestnikov quickly found defenseman Filip Hronek all alone on the weak side and fed him. Hronek made a patient play, getting Vanecek to commit, then putting a pass in front for Adam Erne, who buried it into the yawning cage at 9:17.
Early in the third, Detroit squared the score when Robby Fabbri put back a rebound of an Erne shot from the slot at 2:03.
The Caps generated some good chances in the third, but Greiss stopped them all, many of them from in tight. Late in regulation, Ovechkin found Tom Wilson with a sharp cross-ice feed, only to have Greiss snare the big winger's wrist shot with his glove hand with just under four minutes remaining.
"I would have liked to have that one in the third," rued Wilson afterwards. "It was a good save."
"In the third, I thought Greisser stepped up big," says Wings coach Jeff Blashill. "It's hard to win without good goaltending in this league, that's the reality of it."
Washington opened overtime with Kuznetsov, Ovechkin and John Carlson on the ice, and the Caps won the draw. But they lost a face-off in Detroit ice 13 seconds later, and the Wings possessed the puck thereafter. Detroit managed a wholesale change while Kuznetsov was never able to get to the bench; he was visibly spent and was unable to keep up with Raymond as the rookie winger blazed his way through the middle of the ice on the game-winning rush.
"I do think we've infused more talent," says Blashill. "We have a better hockey team, and so you have a better chance to come back. And with that, you also have more belief and belief that you can come back in those types of situations."
