Martin Fehervary (Caps Outsider)
Marcus Johansson had a chance to tie the game late in the third period Tuesday night, but Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson made a heel kick save to keep the puck out of the net. The Wild would add an empty netter to take the 4-2 win over the Washington Capitals.
The bounce was just one of many that didn’t go Washington’s way, according to Caps coach Peter Laviolette.
“Their shots had eyes tonight and ours didn’t,” Laviolette said. “They found the back of the net and we couldn’t.”
“I don’t know how it didn’t go in,” Johansson, who played his 800th career game, said. “That’s how it goes sometimes.”
Minnesota scored three goals in the second period, all outside shots that got past a screened Charlie Lindgren.
“It’s really frustrating,” Lindgren said. “I thought we did a lot of good things as a team tonight. I thought we easily could’ve won that hockey game. For them to score three goals like that hurts. Doesn’t feel good.”
The Caps had done well defensively until the final moments of the second period. They held Minnesota to just four shots on goal more than halfway through the game, and the scoreboard rewarded them with a 2-1 advantage.
Martin Fehervary had opened the scoring for the Caps late in the opening period. Trevor van Riemsdyk found Fehervary at the opposite point in a four-on-four situation before he and Alex Ovechkin combined on a give-and-go to give the defenseman was time and space before Fehervary rifled a shot to the top corner. The secondary assist marked van Riemsdyk’s 100th career point.
“I saw an opportunity to jump in front of my defender,” Fehervary said. “I pass to Ovi, he just found me and I shoot it. It ended up in.”
For the second goal, Dylan Strome was able to redirect a Fehervary centering pass into the back of the net to give the Caps the lead just over five minutes into the second period. It gave Fehervary his second career multi-point game.
However, the Wild adjusted and were able to score twice in a five-minute span to take a 3-2 lead into the dressing room.
“There were just two or three shifts where they had extended zone time,” Laviolette said. “[We] still kept it to the outside for the most part.”
Despite being on the second game of a back-to-back and not coming away with points, Laviolette liked what he saw out of his group.
“There’s a lot that we did good for 60 minutes,” Laviolette said. “It’s one of those games where I can’t fault the process. I can’t fault the effort. I thought the chances we had, the heavy weight of [offensive] zone possession time, the looks [we had]. Pucks rolling across the crease, we deflected ours they went wide, they deflected theirs they go in. That’s just the way the game went tonight.”
