Facing a two-goal deficit with less than four minutes remaining in Saturday’s game against the Stars in Dallas, the Caps staged a late and furious rally that enabled them to tie the game and send it into overtime. But Dallas prevailed by a 5-4 count on Thomas Harley’s second goal of the game at 3:27 of the extra session, his second game-winning overtime goal in as many games for the Stars.
Down 4-2 in the waning minutes of regulation, the Caps got a needed break when Stars’ forward Max Steel was boxed for tripping with 3:36 remaining. In the latter stages of the ensuing power play, Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery pulled goaltender Charlie Lindgren for an extra attacker, giving Washington a 6-on-4 manpower advantage. The Caps cashed in on an Alex Ovechkin blast from center point with exactly two minutes remaining to pull within a goal.
With Lindgren on the bench again in favor of a sixth attacker, the Caps drew even on a Dylan Strome goal in the final minute, though they had to sweat out a situation room review before the goal was official; there was a question as to whether the whistle had blown or not before Strome found the loose puck and put it behind Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger.
“Obviously, I’m a bit biased, but I think it was the right call,” says Strome. “Obviously, [the referee] can’t see that from where he was, but I could see it. That’s hockey, and the hockey gods got us one tonight, got us a point tonight.
“We’ll take it, and enjoy the break, and come back ready to go for the second half.”
Washington wasn’t able to secure a second point with an overtime or shootout victory, but in pulling a point out of the fire in the final minutes of Saturday’s game, the Caps avoided the ignominy of what could have been its first “pointless” road trip of four or more games in over four decades. The last time Washington came home empty-handed from a trip of four or more games was Oct. 24-31, 1981.
“Huge finish, and we didn’t lay down in a really difficult game,” says Carbery. “That’s a really good hockey team, and they cause a lot of different issues for teams in general, but us as well. I credit our guys for not laying down and finding a way. The 6-on-5 [unit] steps up huge, scores two goals to get that game to overtime, where we would have liked to have found a way to get that second point. But like I told them, that point could be very, very important down the road.”
Desperately needing a good start, the Caps were able to strike for the game’s first goal for the first time on the trip, and for just the 18th time in 47 games this season. John Carlson broke the puck out, sending Evgeny Kuznetsov into Dallas ice. Kuznetsov’s shot from the high slot was blocked, but the puck went right to Anthony Mantha’s tape, and he scored his third goal of the trip and his 15th of the season at 9:40 of the first, staking Washington to a 1-0 lead.
Alas, the scoreboard advantage – the Caps’ first of the trip – was short-lived. A mere 64 seconds later, Dallas pulled even on a Wyatt Johnston goal in transition. The Caps turned it over in Dallas ice, and Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz combined to move the puck quickly into Washington territory, where Hintz set up Johnston – the late guy into the zone – for a shot from between the circles, tying the game at 10:44.
The Stars struck again on their very next shot, taking a 2-1 lead on a high slot wrist shot from Harley at 11:07. Harley’s goal marked the fourth time in as many games on the trip that the Caps surrendered a first-period goal to an opposing blueliner.
Early in the middle frame, the Caps drew even again with a goal from one of their own defensemen. Rasmus Sandin expertly walked the blueline from left point to just to the right of center point, and he sifted a shot through traffic – both Beck Malenstyn and Nic Dowd were near the net front – and behind Oettinger, squaring the score at 2-2 at 6:24.
Less than five minutes after the Sandin goal, Dallas regained the lead with a nifty power-play goal. Matt Duchene pulled a left dot draw back to the left point, and Heiskanen walked it to the middle before dishing to Tyler Seguin, down low in the bottom of the right circle. From there, Seguin put it on the tape of Mason Marchment, who redirected it home from the top of the paint. Similar to a well-executed rod hockey or table hockey goal, Marchment’s tally came at 11:00 of the second period, and just six seconds after Duchene won the draw.
Early in the third, Dallas grabbed a two-goal lead when Marchment set up the trailing Duchene on another transition tally, making it a 4-2 game at 2:24 of the third. Duchene’s goal came on the same afternoon that he was honored for reaching the 1,000-game plateau, a milestone he hit in Washington on Dec. 7.
Duchene’s goal also set the stage for Washington’s late heroics to scrape a point out of the final game of what was a rugged and trying trip, leading up to the Caps’ bye week/All-Star break.
“We were down pretty much the whole game, and it shows strength and character for sure that we came back and tied it up,” says Sandin. “Obviously we didn’t get the ending that we wanted – it’s been a tough trip overall – but you never know at the end [of the season] what point is going to matter, so it’s definitely nice to get one for sure.”
The break comes at a good time for the Caps, who have played 25 games over the last 52 days; no club in the League has played more games than Washington over that span, and the Caps had to travel for a dozen straight games in the midst of that stretch. The Caps also played seven sets of back-to-back games during those last seven-plus weeks, more than any other club in the League over the same span.
“It’s definitely felt like a lot of games here, this last bunch,” says Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “So it’s definitely a welcome break, and we’ve got to use that to our advantage. Get away from the rink a little bit, and make sure when you come back, you’re energized and ready to go. We know what we have ahead of us; it’s going to be a tall task, but we have the guys in here to accomplish it.”
When they return to action on Feb. 6 against Montreal, the Caps will have 35 games remaining, and they’ll be about a month away from the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline.
“Unfortunately, the schedule is not going to get any easier for our group,” says Carbery of Washington’s heavily backloaded schedule, which is also very light on divisional games the rest of the way. “And we’ve got our work cut out for us, coming home here.
“That’s okay. We know we’re in a difficult division, and it’s hard to make the playoffs in the NHL. We put ourselves in a spot where we need to get some points back, and we understand that. It’s going to take a bunch of work; we’re going to have to get tighter in a lot of different areas. We’re going to have to get better offensively. We’re going to have to get some guys rolling, and get their seasons kick-started, but that’s okay.
“We’re going to work and fight, and when we get back from the break, we’re going to have two and a half months to the finish line, and we’re going to put everything we absolutely have into it.”
