Luke Kunin’s power-play goal with 7:12 remaining in regulation snapped a 1-1 tie and lifted the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 victory over the Capitals on Monday night at SAP Center. Monday’s loss in the opener of a five-game road trip leaves the Caps saddled with consecutive regulations for the first time this season. Washington entered the day – along with Los Angeles and the New York Rangers – as one of only three teams in the League that had not been dealt back-to-back losses in regulation this season.
About 90 seconds before Kunin’s game-winner, Caps’ defenseman Martin Fehervary was whistled for hi-sticking San Jose’s Anthony Duclair, a play on which it appeared as if Fehervary were following through on a clearing attempt. Typically, there is no penalty called if a player catches an opponent with his stick while following through on a shot, pass or clearing attempt.
“The way [referee] Jean [Hebert] described it to me, is you have to make a pass or a shot,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Marty is trying to rim that puck, and he nicks it – so he touches the puck – and then he follows through. But I guess the way the rule was described, that play has to get completed, whether it’s a pass or a shot, that’s the way that Jean described it to me.
“I thought it was [a follow through] as long as he makes contact with the puck, and you’re trying to make a pass and say you nick it – and it ends up going left or right or wherever it ends up going – and you follow through, I thought that wasn’t a penalty. But apparently that is the way the rule book describes it; that’s what Jean told me.”
The Caps are still scuffling offensively, and although they played well enough to win Monday’s game, they scored two or fewer goals for the eighth time in 18 games this season. They’re 1-6-1 in those games.
Washington had an early opportunity to get a jump on its hosts, going on a power play in the third minute of the first frame. Alex Ovechkin rang a shot off the iron from his office, and he fed Tom Wilson at the back door for an empty-net opportunity, but the Caps’ extra-man drought continued.
Later in the first, Caps’ defenseman John Carlson saved a goal with a timely shot block of a Mike Hoffman try at a vacant portion of the Washington net, Carlson’s second block on that power play.
Near the midpoint of the period, San Jose netminder Mackenzie Blackwood made a pair of stops on Washington winger Matthew Phillips, and the Sharks broke the seal on the scoresheet just after.
Fabian Zetterlund followed up a rebound of his own shot, putting it into the top left corner of the net from down low on the right side, just above the goal line, at 10:23 of the first.
In the second, Washington netminder Darcy Kuemper denied Zetterlund’s bid on a shorthanded breakaway early in the period to keep the Caps within one. After that, the Caps slowly but surely wore down the Sharks in their own end.
The Caps put 15 pucks on Blackwood in the middle period, and with 3:35 remaining in the frame, they finally got one behind him, ending a red-light dry spell of 96 minutes and 25 seconds without a goal.
Trevor van Riemsdyk took a feed from partner Martin Fehervary, then spotted Evgeny Kuznestov hopping over the boards and into San Jose ice. van Riemsdyk put it on Kuznetsov’s tape, and from the top of the left circle, Kuznetsov fired a wrist shot that glanced off Blackwood’s glove and into the net, squaring the score at 1-1.
“That was a good change by Nic Dowd, and a great screen by [Anthony Mantha],” recounts Kuznetsov. “I think those two guys created that goal, and that was a big goal. But unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for us.”
At the time of the goal, all five San Jose skaters had been on the ice for 90 seconds or more.
The Caps’ third power play of the evening came late in the second, and they nearly took the lead when Ovechkin again found Wilson lurking at the back door, but the big winger couldn’t get a couple of point blank tries behind the San Jose goaltender.
“It happens quick,” says Wilson of his chances on the power play. “Those pucks have got to be in the back of the net. Those are two big moments; if those go in, it’s a different game.”
Kunin scored the game-winner off a bit of a cycle in the right-wing corner of Washington’s zone. Justin Bailey – signed to a two-way NHL deal earlier in the day, and playing his first game as a Shark and first NHL game since last January with Vancouver – made a neat play to feed Kunin from the goal line. Kunin swept a shot past Kuemper from the inside of the right circle.
Washington has scored a pair of goals in 6-on-5 play late in the third period this season, but it wasn’t to be on this night. Monday’s game was reminiscent of some early season games where the Caps did a lot of good things, only to fall short because of their lack of offensive finish. Their power-play drought is now at one month and 33 opportunities, and some of their best looks at 5-on-5 just missed the net.
“We did a lot of good things,” says Carbery. “But it just felt a little bit eerily similar to the start of the year, where we just weren’t able to make that last play or find that last goal, to be able to break through and score maybe three or four in a game. And we’re searching for two [goals], so it makes it tough to win games scoring only one goal.”
