Logan Thompson came within half a period of notching a third straight shutout but having to settle for his ninth win in his last nine starts is a nice consolation prize. Thompson stopped 18 of 19 shots on Saturday night at Capital One Arena, helping the Caps to their fourth consecutive victory, a 4-1 triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Thompson’s shutout streak reached 198 minutes and 22 seconds before Pittsburgh’s Bryan Rust solved him at 11:29 of the third, cutting the Caps’ 2-0 cushion in half. The shutout streak is the longest in the NHL this season, and it’s the third longest in Washington’s franchise history. Thompson fell just short of the standard set more than four decades ago by Pat Riggin, who posted 203 minutes and 52 seconds of shutout hockey for the Caps from Jan. 27-Feb. 3, 1984.
Thompson improves to a remarkable 21-2-3 on the season. He has yielded two or fewer goals against in 17 of his last 21 starts.
“It was fun,” says Thompson of his whitewash streak. “I don’t play for that; my goal at the end of the day is to help this team get two points. And I thought I did my job tonight, and the guys were excellent all day. This is probably one of our best games in a couple of months now, so credit to them.”
Washington’s Saturday night victory also extends its home point streak to a dozen straight games (9-0-3) and its overall point streak to 10 straight games (7-0-3), the longest in the NHL this season.
The Caps turned in one of their best 60-minute performances in recent weeks, and they were able to deliver one of their best second periods of late as well.
“Yeah, I liked our second period,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought the structure was real good tonight. I thought when we didn’t have the puck, we did a really good job being in good spots, getting above people, killing plays in the defensive zone. Our checking was really, really good, and everybody in the right spots was dialed right in, so that was good.
“I thought our puck play at times was a little bit – we’re fighting it. But overall, a real strong game.”
To Carbery’s point, the Caps were guilty of overpassing at times, passing themselves out of prime scoring areas on two or three occasions. They also had a couple of odd man rushes in which they weren’t able to put a shot on Pittsburgh’s rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist, who turned in a strong performance in a losing effort.
For the fifth straight game, the Caps scored first. They never trailed, and they have not trailed at any point in their current four-game winning streak, their fourth winning run of four or more games this season.
Seconds after the first television timeout of the first period, Washington won a puck battle in the right wing corner of the Pittsburgh end of the ice. Aliaksei Protas came away with it, and he worked it around the back of the cage to Jakob Chychrun at the left point. From there, Chychrun quickly let it fly, and it clicked off the stick of Pens forward Anthony Beauvillier and in for a 1-0 Caps lead at 7:07 of the opening period.
“I actually found that I’ve had a lot of really good looks that haven’t been going in,” says Chychrun, whose 13 goals are one shy of his single-season career best. “And then tonight, I get a bounce from pretty far out, so I’ll take that one. But I’m definitely getting looks, which is always nice.”
The Caps snuffed out a Pittsburgh power play late in the first to preserve their one-goal lead.
In the second, the Caps weren’t able to score on their first opportunity of the evening with the extra man. But seconds after the power play expired, the Caps doubled their lead on a pretty passing play and finish.
P-L Dubois put the puck deep in the Pittsburgh end, and the Caps went in on the forecheck. When Marcus Pettersson coughed it up behind the Caps’ cage, Connor McMichael swiftly moved it to Dubois, who put it to the front for Protas. From the slot, Protas fired it past Blomqvist for a 2-0 Washington lead at 12:08 of the middle stanza.
Rust’s goal gave the Pens – who were playing for the second time in as many nights – some life, but the Caps quickly snuffed it out. When Kris Letang was boxed for tripping with just over four minutes remaining, Washington’s power play put on a clinic of puck and body movement and retrievals, pumping eight shots on Blomqvist, including five from inside of 20 feet away.
Dubois fired each of the last three of those shots, and the third was the charm. After taking a feed from McMichael, Dubois went bar down with a dart of a shot from the bottom of the right circle. His first power-play goal as a Capital – and first since April 13 of last year – came at 17:50, six seconds before Letang was to be sprung.
The Dubois goal was a nice reward for an excellent night’s work of neutralizing the Pens’ top trio of Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Rust.
“I love playing with Dubie,” says Caps winger Tom Wilson, who skated in his 800th career NHL game on Saturday. “He is good on both sides of the puck, he’s extremely strong on the pick, high IQ, makes everyone around him a better player, 100 percent. I think everyone is always excited to get a chance to play with him. He makes stuff happen, he’s not selfish at all; he is always dishing the puck, and it’s nice to see him get one.”
“That’s a difficult assignment, and they played real strong minutes for us in a hard matchup there,” says Carbery. “And the [power-play] goal was big, because it’s 2-1 still there, there’s two minutes [left], and it’s going to get contentious there, coming down the stretch with their goalie out if it’s 2-1. And it’s a great release, just a big-time release for him to get that off so quickly after that pass from Mikey.”
Brandon Duhaime scored into a vacant Pittsburgh net with 90 seconds remaining to account for the 4-1 final.
“They play hard,” says Pens coach Mike Sullivan of the Capitals. “They play a straight-ahead game, they’re big and strong, they defend hard, and it’s a hard game when you play against them. They’re a good team.”