Caps Fall 3-2 on Late McDonagh Goal

It's been a while since Washington hasn't been able to pull at least a point from a game, but it happened on Friday night against Nashville in the opener of a two-game weekend homestand at Capital One Arena.

Ryan McDonagh's goal with 3:16 left in regulation snapped a 2-2 stalemate that had been in place for nearly half the game, lifting the Predators to a 3-2 victory over the Capitals. The loss halted Washington's point streak at nine (7-0-2); their last regulation loss before Friday's was a 2-1 setback to Dallas here on Dec. 15.
With both teams playing for the second time in as many nights, open ice was hard to come by as was time and space. But with just over three minutes left, Nashville center Ryan Johansen made a play to McDonagh from just inside the Washington line, sending the veteran defenseman to the net with a backhand saucer pass that Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk wasn't able to swat aside. From there, McDonagh went to the net and cut around goaltender Charlie Lindgren, tucking home a backhander that proved to be the game-winner.
"I just tried to get some speed there," recounts McDonagh, "And [Matt Duchene] to [Johansen] connected there. And obviously a great play by Joey there to find me streaking there and I was fortunate to find a way to put it in."
"They made a nice play," concedes van Riemsdyk. "I feel like I could have done a little bit better job of recognizing that they had numbers and just backing off there. They made a nice play and a nice finish, but I can't put us in a spot like that."
The goal was McDonagh's first as a Predator, and his first in a span of 30 regular season games, since April 29 of last year when he was with Tampa Bay.
Nashville improved to 6-1-2 in its last nine, and followed up a big win on Thursday night in Raleigh with another over the Caps on Friday.
"The last two games we've played against some pretty good teams," says Preds coach John Hynes. "By our commitment to shot blocking and we've gotten some good goaltending, they were physical games, they were hard games. It's nice to be able to put in the effort and the commitment that we're making, and to be able to get the results."
For the second time in as many nights, the Caps fell down a goal before the first television timeout following a turnover in their own end. Nashville's Tom Novak intercepted a pass along the right half wall in Washington ice, cut to the cage and put a shot past Lindgren from the inside of the right circle at 4:10 of the first.
Washington pulled even seconds after the expiration of its first power play of the game. Preds goalie Kevin Lankinen stopped a Dmitry Orlov center point drive, and Conor Sheary got a stick on the rebound before Sonny Milano tapped it home from the right post, knotting the game at 1-1 at 9:52. The goal was also the 100th point of Milano's NHL career.
Nashville went back up by a goal at 15:09 of the first when Yakov Trenin made a nifty play down low, swatting his own rebound out of midair to make it 2-1.
Although Washington's second period was not as strong as most of its recent middle frames, the Caps were able to score in that stanza for the 16th straight game, and Lindgren was able to seal the net against all eight Nashville shots, many of which came from close range.
Just past the midpoint of the middle period, the Caps got even on Nicolas Aube-Kubel's second goal in as many nights. After a D-to-D exchange at the Washington line, Aube-Kubel picked up the puck on his own side of the neutral zone and just kept going, exploiting a big hole in the middle of the ice and the Preds' coverage, and selling Nashville's Nino Niederreiter with a fake shot that took the forward right out of the play. Aube-Kubel took what was given to him, slipping a shot through Lankinen's legs from between the circles at 11:43.
"Maybe because it was a forward playing there in the middle," surmises Aube-Kubel of the amount of time and space he found himself with, rare on this night. "So by faking the shot, maybe he didn't see that coming. I took advantage of it, I guess."
Washington's first period was better than its second, and the Caps were at their best at the start of the third. They began to put some offensive zone shifts together, but everything they put to the net stuck to Lankinen, and a mid-period power play produced one good chance, a one-timer from Alex Ovechkin from his left dot office. Lankinen came out to challenge and set the shot aside, and the Preds began to grasp what little momentum was available for either side on this night.
The Caps held the Preds without a shot for the first eight and a half minutes of the third and limited them to a total of just four in the final frame, but the last one went in, halting the Caps' prosperous point streak.
"They got numbers on the rush, and they took advantage of it," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the game-winner.
"It was a tight game," he continued. "It was going to come down to who scored a goal in the third period or overtime or a shootout. I thought it was fairly tight both ways and you had to fight for your ice out there."