Devils Outlast Caps in Shootout, 3-2

For the second time in as many games, Darcy Kuemper gave the Caps a chance to win on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena. But for the second time in as many 2-2 games in the third, the Caps couldn't get that next goal. The Devils needed Timo Meier's goal in the fourth round of the shootout to put a 3-2 win in the books over Washington, but the Caps desperately needed two points and had to settle for one.

"We definitely needed two [points]," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We had chances to score and weren't able to capitalize. They certainly had their chances as well. I thought Darcy played an unbelievable game. We had an opportunity and we just couldn't get it done. I think you look back with frustration; it goes to breakaways and anything can happen. And they ended up taking it."
Coming into Thursday's game, the Caps had allowed three or more goals against in 10 of their previous 11 games, so Kuemper limiting the Devils - the League's fourth most prolific offensive outfit - to two goals on 40 shots gave Washington a chance to claim a pair of points. But when the Caps can't get that third goal in a game, they're fortunate to get even a single point. Following Thursday's loss, they are now 3-24-4 when scoring two or fewer goals in a game this season.
As was the case in Monday's 4-2 loss to the Kings in Los Angeles, the Caps scored first in Thursday's game, getting a Trevor van Riemsdyk goal on a right point shot and a favorable bounce off a Devils defender and in with just 9.9 seconds remaining in the first frame.
New Jersey quickly tied the game and then took the lead with two goals in a span of 37 seconds in the front half of the middle period. The Devils' first goal came on the power play, and New Jersey also benefited from a favorable bounce on its first goal of the game. Attempting to make a cross-crease feed, Erik Haula scored when his pass glanced off Caps defenseman Alex Alexeyev, then hit Kuemper's mask and bounded in, tying the game at 1-1 at 6:55 of the second.
Dawson Mercer gave the visitors the lead 37 seconds later, potting the rebound of a Tomas Tatar shot from the left point. Mercer's goal was his 22nd of the season, and 11 of them have been scored in New Jersey's last 11 games.
To their credit, the Caps knotted the score just over two minutes later. The unit of Dylan Strome between Sonny Milano and T.J. Oshie has been one of Washington's best units of late, when it has played together. Milano sent Oshie into New Jersey ice, and the veteran winger spun off his check down along the goal line on the left side, whirling and sending a pass toward the weak side where Strome was lurking at the back door. The pass was deflected, and Strome moved toward the paint, tipping it past Akira Schmid to make it 2-2 at 9:50 of the second.
The back half of the game was scoreless, thanks mainly to Kuemper keeping the Devils at bay with a number of big stops on odd-man opportunities and shots from in tight. From the time of the Strome goal until the end of the overtime session, the Devils outshot the Caps 24-11 and Kuemper stopped all 24.
Washington's own scoring chances were more sporadic. As was the case on Monday in Los Angeles, the Caps had difficulty getting past the New Jersey line. And when they did, they weren't able to sustain much in the way of a consistent forecheck or offensive zone time.
The Caps' best opportunities to pull the second point came in overtime, when they had the best of the scoring chances and were on the power play for the final 46 seconds. van Riemsdyk nearly won it for Washington on a breakaway in overtime, but Schmid somehow kept it out.
"It felt like I had him," laments van Riemsdyk. "I just felt like if I could make one little move, I had a lot of pressure on my back so maybe the goalie might bite. I felt like I opened the net up pretty good, but the puck didn't slide as much as I wanted it to, so I kind of had to shovel it.
"If I was able to pull it, it probably would have been more of an empty net. I just caught the top of his pad there, but I've got to find a way to put that in the net."
Washington could have made a winner of Kuemper in the skills competition, but Oshie and Alex Ovechkin missed the net on their tries and Evgeny Kuznetsov's shot rang the left post.
"I thought Darcy was excellent," reiterates Laviolette. "It might have been one of his better ones of the year in net. When you get a goaltending performance like that, you want to cash in on something in the second or the third, to have that redirect drop for us in the offensive zone, and it didn't. We had some chances and some looks, and we couldn't get it done in regulation or overtime."
Each of the last two games could have resulted in a pair of points for the Caps if they could have just netted that elusive third goal, but Thursday night was the 31st time in 66 games this season that they could not net more than two. That's two more times than all last season, when they had a 6-19-4 record when scoring two or fewer goals.
Thursday's game was the third straight in which Kuemper has faced 40 or more shots. The Caps might have won them all, but instead they're 1-1-1 in those games, and just 3-8-1 in their last dozen. Washington has scored two or fewer goals in 16 of 27 games since the calendar flipped to 2023, and they are 10-15-2 overall during that stretch.
"They're a good team," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson of the Devils. "They're one of the top teams in the League. They play fast. I think there were times in this game where we were for sure the better team. We just need to do that a little more consistently, string together some more shifts like that.
"There were times in this game where I felt like we were pushing, we were pushing and we were pushing, and then there were a couple of momentum killers. Good to get a point, but we've got to find a way to win it."