PREVIEW: Red Wings visit Eastern Conference-leading Capitals on Tuesday

WASHINGTON -- The Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals will finish their season series when the Eastern Conference clubs clash at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night.

Puck drop between the Red Wings (32-29-6; 70 points) and Capitals (44-15-8; 96 points) is set for 7 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). Detroit is 1-1-0 against Washington this season, most recently falling, 5-2, at Capital One Arena on March 7.

“The first two periods [11 days ago] were good and then we gave it away in the third period,” Albert Johansson said. “I think we have to focus on our game, be aggressive, come out hard and skate. Do it for 60 minutes instead of 40.”

The Red Wings limited the Vegas Golden Knights to 18 shots in a 3-0 shutout victory on Sunday. Three different skaters (Johansson, Lucas Raymond and Marco Kasper) scored for Detroit, while goalie Petr Mrazek picked up his first shutout of the season and improved to 2-1-0 with a 2.01 goals-against average and .920 save percentage since rejoining the club on March 7.

If the Red Wings could draw up a blueprint for success, head coach Todd McLellan said he believes it would look a lot like Sunday’s result.

“It reassures us that when we do certain things, we have a chance to win,” McLellan said. “And in some of the other games, when we didn’t do them, it’s obvious that we lack any opportunity at success. So, there’s no shortcuts, magic potion or anything like that to a win. We must do certain things to have a chance of success, and that win [on Sunday] is just reassuring when it comes to that.”

Johansson was one of Detroit’s several bright spots against the Vegas, netting his second career NHL goal and logging 21:11 of ice time. The rookie defenseman said while he’s pleased and feels confident in his overall game, he wants to keep focusing on the task at hand -- just like the Red Wings are trying to do as the implications of each game get bigger and bigger.

Detroit entered Tuesday two points behind the New York Rangers (33-29-6; 72 points) for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild-Card spot with one game in hand.

“Every game is very important, but we have to stay where we’re at right now and take it game-by-game,” Johansson said. “Next up, Washington [on Tuesday], so that’s what we’re focused on right now.”

The Capitals have won six of their past seven games following a 5-1 road win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. Alex Ovechkin scored his 887th career NHL goal, and 34th of the season, in San Jose to get even closer to breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894.

In addition to its 39-year-old captain, Washington has benefited from the offensive contributions of Dylan Strome (21 goals, 44 assists), Aliaksei Protas (29 goals, 30 assists) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (17 goals, 42 points) this season.

“I hope he’s not going to break it [on Tuesday],” McLellan joked about Ovechkin. “That would be ugly. I didn’t think [Gretzky’s goal record] would be broken. I just didn’t. It’s going to be broken. I really believe that now, but the next question is will Ovechkin’s record ever be broken?”