When Kings' winger Kevin Fiala scored on a Los Angeles power play early in the third period of Sunday’s game against the Caps at Capital One Arena, things didn’t look great for the home team. Facing a Kings team that entered the game with a 13-2-1 road record, the Caps had been stung for multiple power-play goals against in consecutive games for the first time this season, and Fiala’s goal lifted L.A. to a 3-2 lead. Washington had also been outscored by a combined 12-1 in the third period of its previous seven contests.
But the Caps laid it all on the line in the third period of Sunday's game, rallying for a pair of third-period goals to down the Kings in regulation. With ex-Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper shutting the door after Fiala’s second goal of the game, Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s tying tally in the third, and John Carlson’s seeing-eye game-winner from the right point in the final minute of regulation, the Caps earned one of their biggest victories of the season to date, avoiding a third straight regulation loss for the fourth time this season.
“Not much, really,” says Carlson, when asked what he saw on the game-winner. “I think it went through a few bodies.”
Washington played the third as if it simply would not be denied two points on this day.
“Coming back to the bench after that penalty kill goal,” says Caps’ center Nic Dowd, “bad bounce, [Kuemper] loses it, I don’t get to a pokecheck in front, I think we’re all kind of looking at each other like, ‘There’s no way we’re going to lose this game based off of that bounce.’”
“You could tell our guys – from a compete standpoint, from a focus standpoint, structure, communication on the bench – this was an important game for our group,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “And you could feel that at ice level.”
Both goaltenders were strong during a scoreless first period in which each team committed some turnovers deep in their own ends of the ice. Kuemper made three saves on slot shots before the game’s first television timeout, and Kings’ netminder Cam Talbot made big stops on Dowd, Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome. The Caps had the only power play in the first, but they weren’t able to break the seal on the scoresheet.
In the second period, the Caps sandwiched goals from Dowd and Strome – the same players who scored in Washington’s previous game here on Friday night against Carolina – around a pair of Los Angeles goals.
Dowd’s goal was a beauty. The Caps got a stop in their own end, and Carlson sent Aube-Kubel up the right side of the ice. Aube-Kubel gained the zone, then put a feed to a hard-charging Dowd on his left. Dowd had a step on the Los Angeles defender, and he beat Talbot with a backhander from between the circles at 4:22.
The Kings benefited from consecutive power plays in the middle of the middle period, and they cashed in on the first of those extra-man opportunities, tying the game at 1-1 when Adrian Kempe scored on a one-timer from the right dot at 7:12.
Los Angeles took its first lead of the game at 13:02 when Fiala collected a rebound in the slot, pulled it to a better shooting position, and put it behind Kuemper to make it a 2-1 game.
Late in the frame, the Caps got even by forcing a turnover in Los Angeles ice. Max Pacioretty blunted a Pierre-Luc Dubois breakout bid, creating a two-on-one below the dots for Washington. Pacioretty put it on Strome’s tape, and after a quick net front exchange with Alex Ovechkin, Strome scored his second in as many games to square the score at 2-2 with 4:25 left in the second.
Fiala’s power-play goal came at 1:01 of the third, five seconds into a hi-sticking minor on Connor McMichael. Washington went to work at getting that goal back, and Aube-Kubel eventually obliged, beating Talbot with a shot to the far side off the rush at 8:36 of the third.
The two teams battled hard throughout the remainder of the third, and given the propensity of overtime games the Caps have played in this building of late – five of their prior nine home games went beyond 60 minutes – some extra hockey seemed to be in the cards.
But in the final minute of regulation, the Dowd line combined to manufacture its third goal of the game and its sixth goal in the last four games – two more than it has yielded as a trio at 5-on-5 all season – to put the lights out on Los Angeles.
“I love what Nic Dowd’s line does there,” says Carbery. “Driving the puck down into the offense zone, and then it doesn’t settle to just hold it; there’s a couple of plays to be made there, and they made them. And Dowder does a great job on the flash screen, and Johnny Carlson delivering a puck.”
After enduring the longest goal drought – 32 games – of his 15-year NHL career, Carlson now has two goals in his last three games. In addition to being the game-winner – only the second ever last-minute, go-ahead goal by a Caps’ defenseman; Justin Schultz had the other just under three years ago – Carlson’s “sifter” goal through a maze of sticks and bodies in front might be the first of its type from a Washington defenseman this season.
“As a [defenseman],” says Carlson, “sometimes they just seem to come in bunches. And obviously that was a lot longer than anyone would want, including myself. Hopefully, that means more good things will drop for me.”
Beginning a six-game road trip in the District on Sunday, the Kings were left with a fifth straight loss (0-3-2), their longest slide in over two years, since a five-game skid (also 0-3-2) from Nov. 13-24, 2021.
“If we – as a group – expect to score five every night to win, which is what we needed tonight, that’s not going to happen,” says Kings’ coach Todd McLellan. “I’m a little more disappointed in the defensive part of it … the two middle [goals against] we’re not happy with.”
Ex-Kings Kuemper and Dowd played huge roles in Sunday’s Washington win, biting the hand that once fed them. Kuemper finished with 38 saves, one shy of his single-game high for the season. Dowd had a goal and an assist, and he won 13 of 19 draws (68%) on the afternoon, including 10 wins in a dozen draws (83%) in the defensive zone.
“I don’t look at it like that,” says Dowd, ever the class act. “There’s only a couple of guys on that team that I played with when I was there, and I respect that organization; they gave me my start. They took me late in the seventh round, gave me an opportunity, developed me. And as with a lot of players, it didn’t work out. But I owe a lot of my opportunities in the NHL to that organization, and they helped me out a lot, and I respect the guys that are still on that team.
“But overall, it feels good to win.”
