When they left the DMV last Friday for a two-game road trip to Winnipeg and Minnesota, respectively, the Caps had not trailed on the scoreboard for a span of six full games covering a span of nearly two weeks. But on their journey to take on the Jets and the Wild, the Caps got a reminder of the other side of the coin.
Washington concluded its trip with a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of Filip Gustavsson and the Wild on Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena, a trip in which they never led on the scoreboard and in which they were outscored by a combined 10-1.
Minnesota picked up its fifth straight victory and extended a 17-2-3 heater that started at the outset of November. The Wild is 11-0-2 in its last 13 home games, and it has yielded more than two goals against just once in those 13 contests. The Caps went into the game knowing they would need to be better than they were in Winnipeg. They were, but the bar was low, and Tuesday's performance wasn't enough to overcome one of the League's hottest teams.
“I didn't mind the start at all, other than that shift, third shift into the game with [Dylan Strome’s] line, where we just get a little bit loose there, coming back into the [defensive] zone," says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. "But other than that one sequence, I thought we did a lot of good things in the first period, so we're right there. And then just not able to get that game or get that first goal. So, you start to grip it a little bit, and [we] just couldn't find a way to get on the board.
“And then it sort of snowballs once it gets to two, okay, we're still fine; we can still find a way. But when they get that third [goal] early in the third period, it was a backbreaker.”
Minnesota got an early jump on the Caps when it scored on its first shot on net of the game. The Wild put the puck deep in Washington ice, and Brock Faber was first to it. He bumped it to Danila Yurov, who was also behind the Washington net. From there, Yurov snapped a centering feed to Vladimir Tarasenko in the high slot, and Tarasenko’s wrist shot found twine at 2:09 of the first.
Both teams had unsuccessful power play opportunities in the first frame, and both had unsuccessful breakaway opportunities. Charlie Lindgren denied Marcus Foligno on a breakaway, and Gustavsson stopped Connor McMichael less than a minute later.
Midway through the second period, Minnesota went on its second power play of the contest, and it doubled its lead when Kirill Kaprizov shelved a backhander from the slot at 12:51. The goal was the 206th of Kaprizov’s career, pushing him past Mikko Koivu (205) for second place on Minnesota’s all-time goal scoring ledger. Kaprizov now trails only Marian Gaborik (219).
In the third, Minnesota struck for three more to salt the game away. First, Tarasenko scored two seconds after an offensive zone draw. Officials ruled the Caps were offside intentionally, and the draw came all the way back in the Washington end. Yurov won it to Taransenko, who whipped a shot to the net at 4:23, two seconds after the draw.
Four and a half minutes later, the two combined on a beauty of a goal with Tarasenko carrying into the Caps’ end, protecting the puck with some stickhandling wizardry and then dishing a backhand feed to Yurov for a layup at 8:53.
With Washington on the power play late in the frame, Matt Boldy accounted for the 5-0 final with a shorthanded strike at 14:12.
Gustavsson’s shutout was Minnesota’s League-leading seventh of the season, the most the Wild have had in a single season since they had eight whitewashes in 2015-16.
“We just couldn't create any momentum,” laments Strome. “Obviously we get down early, but I thought we played okay. But they get one early, and we just weren't able to bounce back from that. Obviously, we’ve all got to be better; we leave Chucky out to dry on a couple in the third there. We’ve just got to be better.”
The lone Caps goal on the trip was a Jakob Chychrun goal on a two-man advantage late in the third period of Saturday’s game in Winnipeg. That goal spared them from falling by the same score in the first game of the trip.
Since scoring five goals at 5-on-5 in a 7-1 win in San Jose on Dec. 3, the Caps have managed just six goals at 5-on-5 in five games since (1-2-2).
Although they had a bit more offensive juice on Tuesday than on Saturday in Winnipeg, the Caps’ passing, puck play and shot selection left a bit to be desired on Tuesday. Passing wasn’t crisp; too many pucks rolled off tape, went into skates or were too far behind or ahead of their intended receiver. And they had almost as many shots blocked (23) as they put on Gustavsson.
“Yeah, there’s no doubt,” says Carbery. “The majority of our group right now is struggling to execute and finish. You can see that for the last couple of games – it’s probably been three or four [games]. Usually you go through this, I’ve talked about this before, but it just feels like our whole group is like that right now.”
Cold weather, cold sticks. Tough buildings, tough trip.
