Hawks Prevail in Shootout, 4-3

Back in town to open up a season-long four-game homestand against Chicago on Thursday night, the Caps weren't able to extend their home winning streak to five games. They took their first lead of the night early in the third but couldn't hold it, falling 4-3 to Chicago in the shootout.

Garnet Hathaway came out of the penalty box and scored on a breakaway in the first minute of the third period to give Washington its first lead of the game at 3-2. Although they had chances to add to that lead, the Caps weren't able to do so, and Seth Jones' goal with 8:04 left evened the game and eventually forced a back-and-forth overtime in which both teams had chances to end it.
In the shootout, each of the Caps' first two shooters - Evgeny Kuznetsov and Daniel Sprong - hit the post while Patrick Kane scored to tip the second standings point to Chicago.

"We gave up two chances in the third period and that was it," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We were pressing; we were trying to keep it going. Once we got the goal by Hath, we were pushing more. We couldn't find it. We played well and made some saves, but in the end we were pushing.
"I don't mind what we did in the shootout. We had two guys go in and hit the post twice. It's a game of inches. Kuzy made a nice move, I thought Spronger made a nice move. They ended up scoring one, and they win it."
Chicago drew first blood in Thursday's game, scoring the game's first goal off a 200-foot rush late in the initial period. From the half-wall in his own end of the ice, Jones threw a backhand feed to neutral ice for Alex Debrincat, who then worked a give-and-go with Kane. Debrincat supplied the finish with a nifty backhander for his ninth goal in his last 12 games, and a 1-0 Chicago lead at the 19-miniute mark of the first.
In the first half-minute of the second period, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin finished a hit on Chicago defenseman Connor Murphy, and the blueliner got up slowly and exited the game. He did not return.
The Caps seemed to respond to the hit, tying the game less than a minute later on a slick tic-tac-toe tally off the rush. After halting a Chicago chance, the Caps exited their zone with Hathaway carrying through neutral ice and exchanging the puck with Nic Dowd, then getting it back as they entered the Hawks' end. Hathaway fed Carl Hagelin in left circle, and Hagelin deftly one-touched it to Dowd for the finish at 1:10 of the second, making it a 1-1 game.

Washington had some early chances in the second, and Hawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made a dazzling stop on Lars Eller from in tight, preventing the Caps from taking the lead. The Caps went cold thereafter, going more than nine minutes without a shot on net in the middle of the middle frame.
Meanwhile, the Hawks regained the lead late in a power play. With Dowd off for roughing, the Caps survived most of the kill. Kuznetsov got control of the puck and exited the Washington zone, but didn't get it deep, which would have killed off most - if not all - of the remainder of the penalty. Instead, the Hawks were able to make a quick change and come right back into Washington ice, and they scored with 11 seconds left on the penalty. Fresh-legged Chicago forward Dominik Kubalik scored the goal at 12:57 of the second, four seconds after he hopped over the boards.
The Caps drew even once again, doing so on a broken play a few minutes after the Kubalik strike. After dumping the puck into the Hawks' end, the Caps went in on the forecheck. Alex Ovechkin hustled down the right side to get to the puck, and he threw a pass across for Aliaksei Protas at the far post. The puck deflected off the traffic in front and pinged the far post, and was wobbling on the wrong side of the line until Kuznetsov swooped in and swept it home, tying the game at 2-2 at 17:31.
Hathaway was boxed soon after, and he finished serving his sentence in the early seconds of the third. As he exited the box, Dowd spotted him and fed him perfectly, and his goal at the 57-second mark of the third gave Washington the lead. But for the third straight game, the Caps let a third-period lead slip away.
With just over eight minutes remaining, Jones hopped over the boards and cruised into the high slot, took a feed from Josiah Slavin and beat Vitek Vanecek to knot the game at 11:56.
"It was a great play by Slave to drive it down and stop up," recounts Jones. "It pushed everyone down low in the slot. Then I came off the bench and definitely saw a lane. I was calling for it, and he put it right on my tape. I just wanted to finish it."
"It was a missed coverage on the third [Chicago] goal," explains Laviolette. "I think we had someone there, and they drifted off to the side and it ended up leaving a hole down the middle of the ice.

Jones' goal set the stage for an entertaining overtime and then the Hawks' victory in the shootout, Chicago's first win in the District since a 4-3 overtime win on Jan. 10, 2006, midway through Ovechkin's rookie season.
"Solid," says Hawks interim coach Derek King. "That's a good hockey team - big, fast, skilled. It was a challenge for us. They pushed the pace and they tilted the ice here and there, but we stuck to our game plan. We just played as simple as we could, and we still made some mistakes where I would have liked to have seen pucks go in a little deeper, but we stayed in the fight. It was a challenge for us, but they rose to the occasion."