In the nearly 50-year history of the Washington Capitals, the team has scored four or more goals in the first period of a game on 65 occasions, including Tuesday night’s four-goal outburst in the first period against the Penguins in Pittsburgh. The Caps weren’t able to generate any more offense over the final 40 minutes on Tuesday, but they never trailed and outlasted Pittsburgh by a 4-3 count.
It’s the second time this season the Caps have scored four goals in the first, and the second time they’ve held on for a one-goal win.
On the final day of November in Anaheim, the Caps scored four goals in the first period of what would be a 5-4 win over the Ducks. That opening period outburst was the biggest for the Capitals in more than 15 years, since they opened up a six-pack in the first period of a 10-2 win over the Boston Bruins on March 3, 2008, in the District.
“Not just the goals,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery in assessing the game’s first 20 minutes, “From a structural standpoint and us being able to slow them down, us being able to break their forecheck pressure cleanly for the most part, we were really, really sharp early in the game and were able to grab hold of that thing.”
Tom Wilson recorded his first career hat trick in the Nov. 30 Anaheim game, netting a pair of goals in the first period. He got the Caps started on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, too.
At the 55-second mark of the first, Wilson opened the scoring when he launched a shot from the top of the right circle off the rush, beating Pens’ goalie Tristan Jarry high to the far corner.
Soon after the midpoint of the period, the Caps’ doubled their lead on Beck Malenstyn’s second goal in as many games. Malenstyn carried down the left side of the ice, and once he neared the goal line, he turned and attempted a feed to the front for linemate Nic Dowd. Instead, he got a much better result; the puck hit the stick of Pens’ defender Ryan Graves and popped over Jarry’s shoulder and into the net for a 2-0 Washington lead at 11:16.
“I’m trying to make a play to Dowder in front of the net there,” recounts Malenstyn. “Fortunately, it goes in. I think it’s just a recipe of going to the right places and guys driving the net hard. Things are going to bounce around there sometimes, so fortunately that one goes in.”
Less than two minutes later, the Caps were up three and Jarry was out of the game, pulled in favor of Alex Nedeljkovic after yielding three goals on seven shots. The third Washington goal came on an extended offensive zone shift that featured some movement of both bodies and the puck. From center point and with Matthew Phillips providing some net front presence, Martin Fehervary wristed a shot home at 13:02.
At this juncture of the contest, the Caps had two more goals than Pittsburgh had shots on net (one).
Pens defenseman Chad Ruhwedel appeared to have put his team on the board at 16:33, but Washington quickly issued a successful coach’s challenge, correctly alleging that Pittsburgh was offside.
In the final minute of the frame, Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin scored a power-play goal on a wrist shot from near the Pittsburgh line, and with Aliaksei Protas blocking out the sun in front of Nedeljkovic. Ovechkin’s goal made it a 4-0 game at 19:18 of the first, but Pittsburgh winger Rickard Rakell got one back with a one-timer from the high slot with exactly four seconds remaining in the first.
For Ovechkin, it was also his second goal in as many games and his eighth of the season.
“Best start of ’24,” laughs Ovechkin. “New year, new start. We’ll take it. Great start, and then we maybe relaxed a little bit.”
By the end of the second, the Rakell goal loomed large in the landscape of the game. Washington regressed offensively in the second, while the Pens kept the heat on the Washington end, pumping 16 pucks at Darcy Kuemper and getting two of them behind him.
On the Pens’ first power play of the night, Sidney Crosby scored from the seat of his pants, hacking and whacking until he got the puck over the line at 9:11 of the second period to further trim the Caps’ lead to 4-2.
Once again, Pittsburgh struck for a goal late in the middle frame. From just off the left post, Jake Guentzel whacked a second opportunity shot past Kuemper from in tight, shrinking the Caps’ lead to a single goal with 20 minutes left in the contest.
“Give our guys credit,” says Carbery. “The second period was a disaster, for lack of a better term. But we still had 20 minutes to go and we're protecting the lead, so we turned our mindset completely, did a 180, and got back to doing the things that you need to do to win games in this league.”
In the third, the Caps still weren’t able to muster much in the way of scoring chances, but they were wiser with their puck decisions. The combination of smarter play with the puck, a pair of critical penalty kills, and Washington’s tireless work ethic delivered the game to the win column, the Caps’ first regulation win in 23 days, since a 4-2 victory over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Dec. 10.
The Caps combined for five shot blocks in the final five minutes of the game, leaving only two stops for Kuemper to make during the final five; both of those came in the final minute when he denied both Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin. By night’s end, the Caps had blocked more shots (23) than they put on the Pittsburgh net (22), led by Fehervary and John Carlson with four each.
“The guys have been doing that all year in the tight games, paying the price and getting in front of those shots,” says Kuemper. “Those are huge momentum swings, and why we feel comfortable in those tight games.”
Pens’ coach Mike Sullivan was asked whether he pulled Jarry for performance reasons or to wake up the rest of his squad.
“A little bit of both,” says Sullivan. “I didn’t think Jars had his best, but I didn’t think the team had its best either, early in the game. For me, that’s the moral of the story. I loved our compete level, and climbing back into the hockey game, we certainly made it a game. But we can’t spot a team those type of goals early on.”
Tuesday’s win ended a four-game slide (0-2-2) for the Caps, their longest of the season.
“It's not always pretty,” says Carbery. “And we didn't control play in the third period, didn't generate very much. But what we did do was we made smart decisions with the puck, we supported, we communicated, we did the things that you have to do to win games in this league, especially when you're protecting leads, especially when the other team is going to be overly aggressive and be taking chances and be pushing for offense. I thought we did a real good job and penalty kill stepped up as well.”
It was another in a series of white-knuckle victories for the Caps this season, but to their credit, they never trailed at any point, and they got it done in regulation. They also avoided becoming the fourth group of Caps to score four goals in the first period, only to go on and lose the game. The last time that happened was in an 8-6 loss to the Rangers at USAir Arena in 1991.
Not to worry, kid.
