For the fifth time after as many losses this season, the Capitals have rebounded for a victory to nip a potential losing streak in the bud. On Friday night in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena, the Caps skated to an impressive 5-2 triumph over the Avs.
Connor McMichael scored twice, but the story of the game was the Caps’ defensive effort against one of the League’s most dynamic offensive clubs. Washington was able to keep Colorado’s formidable top six at bay all night, and it held Nathan MacKinnon – the NHL’s leading scorer – without a shot on goal in 22:06 of ice time.
It’s the first time in 79 games that MacKinnon has been held without a shot on net; the last time it happened was Nov. 27 of last year against Tampa Bay. Colorado’s top six forwards were limited to four shots on net.
“I thought we did a phenomenal job with their top players, especially the forwards,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I felt like [Avs’ defenseman Cale] Makar got us a few times and Chucky [Lindgren] bailed us out. But forward wise, I thought we did a real good job limiting time and space, not giving them the speed through the neutral zone and their ability to attack and put us in tough spots off the rush and then defensively when they did get to some of those sequences against, you know, US versus their top line. Real nice job.
Both teams scored on their first shot of the game. The Avalanche struck first, jumping out to an early 1-0 lead when Parker Kelly scored from the top of the right circle at the two-minute mark, just 10 seconds after Colorado won a draw in the Washington zone.
With the Caps on the power play just over two and a half minutes later, P-L Dubois teed up Jakub Vrana, and the latter drilled a one timer from a similar location – just above the right circle – squaring the score at 1-1 at 4:25.
Each of Vrana’s first three career goals – all of them scored in 2016-17 – came on the power play, but he only had six power play goals during his first tour of duty with Washington. His goal on Friday night in Denver was his first extra-man tally in a Washington sweater since a Jan. 11, 2020 game against New Jersey.
Ahead of the midpoint of the opening frame, McMichael gave Washington a 2-1 lead. Trevor van Riemsdyk made a strong play, winning a puck battle on the right half wall, and he pushed it down low for Tom Wilson, who curled around the back of the Colorado cage. As he did so, McMichael drifted into some quiet ice in the high slot. He was locked and loaded when Wilson fed him, and McMichael’s one-timer put the Capitals up by one at 7:48.
With Colorado on the power play in the waning seconds of the first, Lindgren made an excellent lateral stop, sliding to his left to deny a one-time bid from the often lethal Mikko Rantanen and preserve the one-goal Washington lead.
Early in the second, McMichael executed a dazzling swipe and snipe play. He picked off Sam Girard’s exit pass, walked Josh Manson and beat Colorado goaltender Justus Annunen at 1:50. The unassisted goal made it a 3-1 game and ended Annunen’s night; he departed in favor of Trent Miner, who made his NHL debut in relief after the starter was dented for three goals against on six shots in just over a period of work.
“I kind of just stole the puck,” recounts McMichael, “and I think it was Manson I saw who was trying to gap up, flat-footed, trying to get in the shot lane. So I just faked the shot, pulled it to my backhand and found a hole.”
Colorado’s Nikolai Kovalenko bagged a rebound from the top of the paint at 4:03 to draw the Avs within a goal, and the next several minutes featured more icings than shots on goal, and many more whistles than were heard in the first.
Just ahead of the midpoint of the middle frame, Dubois made an excellent defensive play at the Washington line, and the Caps were able to restore their two-goal cushion in transition. Dubois essentially pushed Colorado blueliner Sam Malinski – and the puck – off the left point. Dubois collected the disc and carried into Colorado ice before dishing a feed to the trailing Jakob Chychrun, who was driving the center lane. Chychrun baptized Miner, shooting and scoring high to the glove side, for the rookie’s first NHL goal against at 9:21.
“It was a great pass,” says Chychrun. “Dubie has been making great passes like that most of the year, and it was nice to capitalize on this one.”
Dubois was excellent all night long, over the full length and width of the ice sheet.
“I thought Dubois was one of our best players tonight,” says Carbery. “And they had the majority of the matchup against MacKinnon, and he was phenomenal on both sides of the puck. He creates the goal that is the goal of the game, and that is Chychrun’s goal. And that is [Dubois] at both ends of the ice. And the entry play, to be able to delay and find some space there, yeah, he was really good tonight.”
Lindgren again made a key stop late, getting his glove on a Makar shot, not long after the dynamic Colorado blueliner rang the iron behind him.
In the third, the Caps were a much more determined and assertive group than they were on Wednesday when a two-goal lead slipped away late in the third. Washington put on a defensive clinic in the third, taking away time and space and frustrating the Avalanche’s efforts to complete the sweep of a four-game homestand. Instead, the Caps got off on the good foot, winning the opener of their three-game Western trip.
Rasmus Sandin’s empty-net goal in the waning seconds accounted for the 5-2 final.
“It’s not easy playing here on the road against this team,” says Dubois. “We knew before the game that you don’t always choose the matchups, and it was going to take a great effort from the six [defensemen] and all four lines, and I think that’s what we did really well.”
