Stars Stop Caps' Streak, 2-1

Fans flocked into Capital One Arena on Thursday night hoping to witness history. Instead, they saw a pretty good goaltending display at both ends of the ice between a pair of netminders with excellent - if short - résumés against the opponent of the evening. At the end of the night, it came down to a bounce, and that bounce went in the Dallas Stars' favor.

With the score even at 1-1 early in the third period, Colin Miller's shot from the right point bounced off the backside of Caps center Lars Eller and found the far corner of the cage behind Caps' goalie Charlie Lindgren, who saw his - and the team's - five-game winning streak halted on Thursday.
That ugly goal from an unlikely source stood up as the winner as the Stars eked out a 2-1 win over Washington, extending their domination over the Caps in the District. Dallas has now won 10 of its last 11 games here in D.C.
"I had my head down and just shot it," recounts Miller. "I really just tried to shoot it at the net and got lucky."
Needing one goal to tie Gordie Howe (801) for second place on the NHL's all-time goals ledger, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin put five shots on the Dallas cage, five of the 46 shots Washington pumped towards Stars netminder Jake Oettinger. But none of Ovechkin's shots got past Oettinger, who entered the game with a 0.86 career GAA and a .970 save pct. in three appearances against the Capitals.
"[Stars coach Pete DeBoer] said that the next two goals that [Ovechkin] scores, the whole team is going to come off the bench," says Oettinger. "And obviously I don't want that to happen, not against us. He can do that stuff another night. It's always fun playing one of the best to ever do it, it's a fun challenge and we stepped up."
"He played an incredible game," says Stars captain Jamie Benn of Oettinger. "He gave us a chance to win and probably should be all three stars tonight."
The Caps carried a slim 1-0 lead into the third thanks to Conor Sheary goal off a nice feed from Ovechkin, but they were also facing a carryover Stars power play of 102 seconds in duration. Benn scored on that man advantage just 48 seconds into the final frame, squaring the score at 1-1. Roope Hintz whacked a loose puck across the crease to Benn, who potted it from the back door.
Miller's goal came a mere 79 seconds later, and those two quick strikes spoiled one of the most complete defensive efforts the Caps have offered against an elite opponent this season.
"I think we maybe gave up three [scoring chances] in the last 40 minutes," laments Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "That's what's tough. I think that's what is going to lead to the bad taste in our mouth, is that defensively we did the right things against a read good offensive team."
"I think we had a bad minute and that kind of killed us," says Sheary. "We wanted to get the kill going out for the third and then build off of that, and obviously we didn't do that, and they scored right away. But I think for 59 minutes we played really good hockey, and probably if we score on some of our chances, we're able to score a few more, we'd have been able to win that game. But I don't think it was a lack of effort or execution."
Coming off a road-heavy stretch of hockey, the Caps didn't fall into the trap of the "trap game," the first game back home after a long road stretch. They came out strong and stayed that way. The teams traded chances and zone time in the first, but in the second the Caps began to tilt the ice. They limited the Stars to just four shots on net at 5-on-5, with the closest one coming from 39 feet away and none of them in the final 13 minutes of the frame.
Meanwhile, the Caps took their 1-0 lead when Ovechkin fired a slap pass to Sheary at the back door to open the scoring at 9:23 of the middle period. Washington dominated the rest of the period but couldn't manage to add to its lead against Oettinger, who shutout the Caps on 27 shots in Dallas on Oct. 27. The Caps' unfortunate downfall began when Stars veteran Joe Pavelski drew a tripping call on Washington winger Anthony Mantha with 18 seconds remaining in the period.
Dallas didn't have much going on offensively when the third got underway.
"We need to score on that power play, and we found a way to get one," says Benn.
"It wasn't Chuckie's fault," says Laviolette of Lindgren on Benn's goal. "He had a back door goal where they pushed it on the power play and made a nice play to get it to the back post, and then a redirect on something that's going wide of the net that he had no control over. That's what's probably what's frustrating about it; the defensive effort was there, but I thought the offensive effort was there, too."
Lindgren entered Thursday's game with a 1.34 GAA and a .955 save pct. in his three career outings against Dallas. He made 24 saves and deserved a better fate.
"Good win against a real good team," says DeBoer. "This is obviously a tough trip; with the three teams we've played so far and then Carolina coming next, that might be as tough a grouping for sure as we've had so far this year. I think you'd probably call that a goalie win for us; I thought he was our best player. That game really got tilted against us in the second period, and that's where he really won us the game."
Ovechkin gets his next crack at catching Howe when the Caps host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.