Two teams with dim and fading playoff hopes hooked up on Friday night at Capital One Arena, and it turned into a goaltending duel between Washington’s Logan Thompson and New Jersey veteran Jake Allen. At night’s end, the Caps extended their modest point streak to three straight games (2-0-1) with a 2-1 victory over the Devils.
Thompson was typically terrific, stopping 31 of 32 shots. He kept the Devils at bay until the game’s final minute when New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt beat him with a wicked shot to the far corner from the right circle, with Allen pulled for an extra attacker. Bratt’s goal was a goal scorer’s goal, and it made Aliaksei Protas’ 110-foot empty-net marker from the neutral zone stand up as the game-winning goal.
Washington hasn’t had much in the way of offensive wherewithal of late, and Thompson has helped them get by with a paucity of an attack, as he did again on this night.
“He was awesome,” says Washington winger Brandon Duhaime of Thompson’s game on this Friday night. “He does it every night for us, and I think we might be relying on him a little bit too much, for sure.”
The Caps started strong and were fairly solid throughout the game’s first 40 minutes, but they were holding on in the third when New Jersey turned the game into a track meet. The two teams combined for 29 shots on net in and 70 shot attempts in the first 40 minutes, and the Caps and Devils then combined for 31 shots on net and 52 attempts in the final frame.
New Jersey had the lion’s share of those totals, pumping 32 pucks toward the Washington net in the third period, and getting 19 of them through to Thompson.
“Having a really good goaltender,” responds Caps coach Spencer Carbery, when queried as to how his team managed to hold on for the win. “I didn’t think we managed that period very well, on two fronts. One, defensively, I just thought we had some poor whether it was reads and brain stuff, or just an ability to close 1-on-1 situations, get underneath a stick, or defend a 1-on-1 off the rush.
“So, that’s the defensive side, and then offensively, I didn’t think we were able to [slow the Devils]. They’re obviously going to push, but you’ve got to be able to slow them down and stall them and have some time of forecheck, [offensive] zone [presence], and we didn’t do nearly enough of that. So, when you don’t do enough of that, typically you’re back on your heels and they’re just coming in wave after wave after wave, and I felt like that was a majority of the third period.”
If you’re good at math, you’ve deduced that there was only one other goal scored in the game, and it came off the stick of Ryan Leonard, who has now scored five times in eight games in the month of March.
With Washington working the Devils in their own end, the Caps began to change personnel. As Duhaime fired a shot from the slot, Allen made the save and the rebound drifted out toward the New Jersey line just after Leonard hopped over the boards and onto the ice. He scooped up the puck and fired a laser of a wrist rocket past Allen at 9:36 of the first, just eight seconds into his shift.
“Great change by [Ethen] Frank, and it set me up out there,” recounts Leonard of his 15th goal of the season. “Dewey put a puck on net and it came to me, and I just tried to get it off as quick as possible.”
Both Thompson and Allen were making stellar stops throughout the night, and both seemed to have a magnetic glove hand on this night. Thompson used his to thwart Jack Hughes off the rush minutes after the Leonard goal and also to shut down a Dougie Hamilton one-timer from the flank early in the second.
Allen denied Alex Ovechkin on a rebound bid in the front half of the second, but he saved his best work for the third when he denied Duhaime twice from in tight, stopped Frank on a semi-breakaway and gloved down a pair of bullets off Leonard’s stick.
“He can shoot the puck, and I think he could have had three or four tonight,” says Duhaime of Leonard.
“He played great,” says Leonard of Allen. “[Connor McMichael] made a great play there at the end, and it’s a great save. Sometimes they’re not all going to go in, and it’s the best League in the world and every goalie is going to bring it.”
And that’s what Thompson has done for Washington since coming here last season. Tonight’s game marked the 11th time in 48 starts this season that Thompson carried a shutout into the third period; he has two shutouts – both at home in December – on the season.
Tonight’s shutout buster was the latest one of the nine that didn’t become whitewashes; two nights ago, Ottawa’s Tim Stützle spoiled Thompson’s shutout at 17:19 of the third. Tonight’s goal of Bratt’s stick came at 19:17.
“I don’t really care about that,” shrugs Thompson. “They’re not going to remember me for my shutouts, so it’s not really on my mind. I just want to win. I’m not really trying to get a contract; I’m not trying to prove anything. So, just wins. Wins are all that matters.”
And Thompson now has 24 of them on the season, with tonight’s victory elevating the Capitals to 78 points in the standings with a dozen games remaining.
As the Devils continue their five-game road trip, they sit with 72 points and 13 games remaining.
“I thought we had a push there in the third,” says Allen. “We had some looks. But they’re a really good team in the [defensive] zone and in the [offensive] zone; they have a really good hockey team over here and they made it tough on us to get in tight and in front of the net, and to get some good looks. But when we did, Thompson made some great saves. He’s one of the best goalies in the League, and we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us; they’re really good in this building.”
With Friday’s win, the Caps improve to 8-1-1 in their last 10 games at Capital One Arena, and they won for just the second time in New Jersey’s last eight visits to the District (2-3-3).
