For the first time in 38 games this season, the Capitals needed a shootout to determine the winner of their Thursday game against the Minnesota Wild at Capital One Arena. Playing in Capital One Arena for the final time in his 21-year NHL career, Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout, and Matt Boldy’s shootout strike gave Minnesota a 4-3 win.
Although Fleury leaves town with his 28th career victory over the Caps, Washington captain Alex Ovechkin was able to solve the venerable netminder for the 28th time, scoring on a power play late in the second period.
“I don’t love getting scored on by him, but I love the battles over the years,” says the longtime Penguins netminder, who is retiring at season’s end. “Especially since we had so many big games here, and we saw him quite a few times in the playoffs, too.
“This building is fun; it was always a good atmosphere – loud. And when you play against one of the best players in the world, it’s always a good challenge, and it brings out the best in you.”
The Caps had a pair of one-goal leads they weren’t able to add to in Thursday’s game, and Minnesota stayed close enough to get it done in the end.
“Definitely more positives tonight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of his team’s performance. “I felt like our [offensive] zone play was much better. We had a lot more sustained pressure, and I thought we did an okay job with that time. But that was positive; we spent a lot more time in the offensive zone. But we’re still fighting it; we’ve got some guys who are really fighting it right now, so we’re just trying to work through that.”
Washington scored the game’s first goal just after the midpoint of the first and played a strong first 20 minutes overall, but the Caps were down a goal by the time they went to the room for the game’s first intermission.
On the forecheck, Washington won a series of small puck battles on the left side of the Minnesota zone, pushing the puck up the wall to Rasmus Sandin at the left point. Sandin let a shot fly, and parked at the top of the paint, Tom Wilson flagged it down and banged it home for a 1-0 Washington lead at 10:19 of the first period.
Wilson’s goal was his 15th of the season, making the Caps one of two NHL clubs with a quartet of 15-goal scorers; Tampa Bay is the other team that can make that claim.
Minnesota issued a prompt response to the Wilson goal, scoring on a similar play just 65 seconds later when Ryan Hartman tipped Zach Bogosian’s point shot past Charlie Lindgren at 11:24 to square the score at 1-1.
The Caps started getting to their game in the final six or seven minutes of the period, spending more time in the offensive zone and eventually drawing the game’s power play with 1:48 left in first.
But instead of grabbing a lead heading into the second, the Caps fell behind when Yakov Trenin scored a shorthanded goal in the final minute of the first. Lindgren went to play the puck behind the net, but he lost the handle and his stick. Trenin was able to relieve Lindgren of the puck, and then he tucked it home for a 2-1 Wild lead with 52.4 seconds remaining.
Marty Fehervary’s mug has been a magnet for mayhem recently, and Thursday’s game was no exception. In the second period, the defenseman's helmeted head rattled the boards after a hit from Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno, and late in the frame, he caught a stick up high from Wild center Marat Khusnutdinov, putting the Caps on a four-minute power play.
For the 28th time in his NHL career, Ovechkin put the puck in the net behind Fleury on the ensuing power play, tying the game at 2-2 at 15:08 of the second. No goaltender has surrendered more of Ovechkin’s 871 career goals than future Hockey Hall of Famer Fleury.
Dylan Strome set up the Ovechkin goal, taking a hit to make a play along the left half-wall, and feeding the captain for the payoff shot. The assist is Strome’s team-leading 30th of the season; he is the 14th NHLer to reach that plateau in 2024-25. Strome’s career high in helpers is 42, established in 2022-23, his first season as a Capital.
In the third, Fehervary staked the Caps to a lead with his first goal of the season, a point blast over a prone Fleury at 5:34 of the third. P-L Dubois notched the solo helper on the play, matching his total from all of last season with his 24th assist of ’24-25.
In a perfect world, Fehervary’s marker would have stood up as the game-winner, given the blood, pain and teeth he’s given to the cause recently. But it was not to be.
Minnesota began to shift the tides of momentum and possession in the third, and when Wilson swatted the puck past Fleury at 11:04, the building briefly erupted. But even though the Washington winger took the shot from his knees, his stick blade was elevated when he did so; officials called it “no goal” when it happened, and a brief video review validated that call.
Fifteen seconds later, the Wild tied the game on a 3-on-2 rush. Marco Rossi gained the zone in the middle of the ice, dishing to Hartman on the right side, and continuing on toward the net. Hartman put a shot to the net and Rossi tipped it, then buried the rebound after Lindgren made the initial stop. Rossi’s goal made it 3-3 at 11:19.
“Those are important shifts, no question,” says Carbery. “Shifts after goals, we remind our guys – and our guys know those are big shifts – and usually I’ll deploy a certain line in those circumstances to try to make sure that shift is looked after. Unfortunately, a couple of those shifts didn’t go our way tonight, with a couple of mistakes that end up costing us.”
Rossi’s tying tally set the stage for the first fruitless overtime the Caps have played in half a dozen extra sessions this season. Boldy nearly won it when he hit the goalpost during 3-on-3 overtime, but he was the lone shooter to score in the shootout while Strome, Dubois and Ovechkin all failed to find the range against Fleury.
“It comes down to a shootout,” says Wilson. “We had a couple of leads. They’re a good team; they check hard. It was tight both ways; there wasn’t a lot of chances. It comes down to the shootout, and they capitalize on one.”
Thursday’s victory in the District was Minnesota’s League-leading 14th road win of the season; the Wild is 14-3-3 outside of the land of 10,000 lakes.
“We knew going into the game it was going to be that style of game,” says Wild coach John Hynes. “And I really liked the consistency level that we played with. There was some adversity in the game, but we stayed with it.”
