An early two-goal hole proved to be too deep for the Caps to dig their way out of, and they dropped their fourth straight game (0-3-1) in a 4-1 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. Coupled with the New York Islanders’ 4-2 victory over Columbus on Thursday, the Caps’ loss drops them to ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings, a point behind the Islanders.
Pittsburgh’s first two shots of the game – both shots from the left point – found their way into the net, and that was all the offense Pens’ netminder Alex Nejdelkovic (30 saves) would require.
“Early on, I liked our first period,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought we came out well. The first [Pittsburgh goal] is not a bad bounce; the second one is. But we get down on two shots. They do a good job of getting those shots through, and it puts us in a hole.
“But I didn’t feel like we were on the ropes there at any point early in that game. I feel like those were just bad breaks that went to the back of the net. Okay, reset – and I felt like we did a pretty good job of that for the rest of the first period. Second period, we stumbled a little bit. We started to get a little bit stubborn and tried to do too much, and everybody was trying to save the world, to score.”
As Carbery mentions, Washington had a strong first period in terms of possession, zone time, scoring chances, shots on net and other positive indicators. But the only thing that matters is the scoreboard, and the Caps came out of the first period two pucks behind the Pens.
While Washington was all around the Pittsburgh net in the first, the Caps couldn’t get one to drop; they missed on 11 shot tries and had another eight attempts blocked. At the other end of the ice, the Pens simply got a couple pucks toward the net and got a couple of good bounces, building a multi-goal advantage.
Rookie defenseman Ryan Shea entered the game pointless in 24 career NHL games. That changed at 1:49 of the first period when ex-Caps pivot Lars Eller won a left dot draw back to Shea, and he sifted a wrist shot through traffic and to the back of the net for a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead.
The Caps kept the heat on offensively, but the Pens doubled their lead on their second shot of the game. Just after the midpoint of the first, Pierre-Olivier Joseph put shot toward the net, and it clanked off the skate of Caps’ defenseman Nick Jensen and in, making it a 2-0 contest at 11:03.
Washington had the game’s first power play just after the Joseph goal, but the Caps couldn’t cut into the lead.
In the second, the Caps’ offensive wherewithal seemed to lose some starch. Washington teed up 18 shots, but it managed to get just five of them on net; eight shots were blocked and five missed the mark.
Meanwhile, the Pens added to their lead when Michael Bunting clapped a shot past Charlie Lindgren from the top of the left circle at 9:08 of the second. The Bunting goal put the Caps in a three-goal ditch heading into the game’s final frame.
Washington had one last excellent chance to climb back into the contest early in the third when the Pens fell into some penalty soup, leading to a 5-on-3 power play for Washington for a minute and 53 seconds. It was just the second two-man advantage the Caps have enjoyed this season, and it turned into a frenzied couple of minutes. Pittsburgh’s Bryan Rust had a 3-on-5 breakaway, but he missed high with a backhander.
The Caps didn’t score on the power play, but Alex Ovechkin converted a cross-crease feed from Sonny Milano just as the second penalty expired, and Ovechkin’s 27th goal of the season – and the 849th of his career – enabled the Caps to avoid the ignominy of a second straight home ice whitewash at the hands of the Pens, who won 4-0 here in Washington’s season opener back on Oct. 13.
Eller’s empty-net goal accounted for the 4-1 final, sending the Caps off to Carolina and searching for a way to stop the slide before it’s too late. Only seven games remain now for Washington, which still controls its playoff destiny. The Caps have scored just six during during the life of their four-game slide.
“I think we tried to create the extra pass,” says Ovechkin. “We were holding the puck a little bit longer, trying to find the pretty play. It’s not going to work, especially at that moment of the season when everybody tries to concentrate on the win, everybody plays a little faster, and you have to make a decision quicker.”
With Thursday’s victory, Pittsburgh extended its point streak to seven straight games (5-0-2) and it pulled to within a point of Washington in the battle for the last two available playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, third place in the Metro Division, and the second wild card slot. Philadelphia and the Islanders, respectively, currently hold those positions.
“I couldn’t be happier for the players,” says Pens’ coach Mike Sullivan. “I think they’re having a lot of fun right now; they’re competing, they’re battling hard. It’s not perfect, but I love our energy, our enthusiasm, our compete level.”
The Caps will need to muster their own stores of energy and enthusiasm for Friday’s battle with the Canes, who are 8-2-1 in their last 11, including Thursday’s 4-1 home ice loss at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
“Tomorrow is a new day, and a big game,” says Ovechkin.
