Since joining the Caps last season, Darcy Kuemper typically hasn’t had much offensive support. That dearth of goal support extended into the shootout in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Wild at Capital One Arena. Kuemper stopped all seven of the Wild’s shootout tries, and he picked up the 3-2 victory when John Carlson finally notched the lone Washington goal in the skills competition, beating future Hall of Famer Marc-Andre Fleury high on the glove side.
Originally a Wild draft choice in the 2009 NHL Draft, Kuemper bit the hand that once fed him, fighting off 39 Minnesota shots before the shootout, including five in the overtime session. Most notable were a pair of stops on former Caps forward Marcus Johansson on a Wild power play in the middle of the third period, and on a breakaway with only a second or two remaining in overtime.
Washington’s special teams have firmed up, leading to the team’s first set of consecutive victories this season. Both Caps’ goals came on special teams, and Washington had a perfect night on the penalty kill.
“It’s the difference in the game,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “We score on the power play, and we kill off a bunch of really important penalty kills, and then get the Willie shorthanded goal.”
Of the 57 NHL goaltenders who’ve made at least two starts this season, Kuemper ranks 55th with a miniscule average of 1.22 goals per game in run support. Given that stat, it’s rather remarkable that he owns a 2-2-1 record on the season. Last season, Kuemper finished 39th of 48 goalies with at least 25 starts. The Caps scored an average of 2.75 goals per game for him in 2022-23.
“The guy is a very good goalie,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome of Kuemper. “He makes a lot of good saves, he sees the puck really well. He’s hard to score on even in practice, and I’m glad it translates to the game. He finds some ways to make big saves when you think they maybe have open nets.”
Once such instance occurred in the shootout, when Kuemper threw his right pad up, and Marco Rossi’s shot bounced off it and harmlessly away.
“I don’t know if that’s a full scorpion,” joked Kuemper afterwards. “Maybe a half scorpion. I didn’t quite get it up all the way.”
Special teams were big again for the Caps in Friday’s win, but they were also guilty of taking some bad penalties, which led to too much time on the penalty kill against a Minnesota team that played the night before. When the sides were playing 5-on-5, the game was tight and relatively even, but Washington put itself in harm’s way on too many occasions.
At evens, the Wild owned a 26-25 advantage in shots on net. But Kuemper had to make 13 of his 39 stops during Minnesota’s five power plays, which totaled 9:04 on the night.
“It usually evens out in the end,” says Carbery. “But we just need to be smart in some situations, where we’re not putting ourselves in bad spots, and killing. Because one of those could be the difference in the game.”
The Caps got off to an inauspicious start in Friday’s game, falling down a goal on Minnesota’s second shot of the night, a Rossi snapper from between the circles off the rush at 2:17.
Minutes after that, the Caps went shorthanded twice in short succession. The first of those two infractions was legitimate; the second was a phantom tripping call on Anthony Mantha in the offensive zone. Not only did the Caps kill them both off, they struck for their first shorty of the season during Mantha’s wrongful incarceration.
Trevor van Riemsdyk broke it out of Washington ice, sending Connor McMichael into neutral ice. In turn, McMichael issued a deftly sauced feed to Tom Wilson, who then ripped a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury from the right dot at 9:49 of the first, squaring the score at 1-1.
McMichael’s helper marks the first shorthanded point of his NHL career. van Riemsdyk’s shorthanded assist was the first point from a Washington defenseman other than Carlson this season.
Late in the frame, Beck Malenstyn used his wheels to draw an interference call in Minnesota ice, and Washington pushed its way into the lead on the ensuing power play. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin has been passing the puck exceptionally well this season, and he authored the primary helper for Dylan Strome’s tap-in tally at the far post at 17:14 of the first.
The second period was scoreless, but for a few seconds in the middle of the frame it appeared as though the Caps had expanded their lead on an Ovechkin goal at the back door. But for the third time in as many games, Washington had a goal taken off the board after a successful coach’s challenge by the opposition. Officials ruled that Ovechkin had preceded the puck into the zone on the play.
For the second time in as many periods, the Caps took two minors in short succession. They killed both off without any change in the scoreboard, but Washington had to lay out and block a number of shots during those five penalty killing missions.
“It’s huge for me, it’s huge for the bench,” says Kuemper of the shot blocking in front of him. “The whole team feeds off that kind of sacrifice, and it was nice to see both special teams get rewarded tonight; [the PK] goes 5-for-5 with a shorty, and then the power play gets a huge goal as well.
Early in the third period, Minnesota tied the game when Ryan Hartman beat Kuemper on a breakaway. Hartman picked up a loose puck at the Minnesota line after Caps’ defenseman Martin Fehervary fanned on a shot try from the left point, and the game was all even at 1:16 of the third.
Late in the third, the Cap were finally able to generate some sustained offensive zone time, forcing the Wild to play in its own end. That’s when Fleury – a 20-year vet who is six wins shy of Patrick Roy (551) for second on the NHL’s all-time wins list – was at his best on this Friday night. He finished the night with 31 saves, and 13 of them came after the midpoint of the third period; many of those were from point blank range.
In the end, Kuemper outdueled one of his goaltending heroes in the shootout. And he did so by eschewing his shootout homework.
“I used to, and I’ve completely stopped,” says Kuemper, asked whether he studies the opposition’s shootout tendencies before games. “I don’t want to freeze on a move that I expect and they do something different, so I just try to go out there and react.”
