*Sorry for the lack of photos! Hoping to get permission eventually.*
The Capitals put an end to their six-game skid when they defeated the Red Wings at the Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, April 9th. It had been a tough loss for Detroit after their 3-1 victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday. Both the Capitals and Red Wings have four games left, each of them play on Thursday. Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th goal for the NHL-record 18th season, passing Mike Gartner, who had achieved the milestone in 17 of his 19 NHL seasons before he retired in 1998. In the 2-1 loss, Patrick Kane scored the lone goal to record his 20th of the season.
Capitals lineup against the Red Wings:
Ovechkin - McMichael - Oshie
Protas - Strome - Wilson
Pacioretty - Lapierre - Milano
Malenstyn - Dowd - Aube-Kubel
Fehervary - Carlson
Alexeyev - Jensen
van Riemsdyk - Iorio
Lindgren
Kuemper
Red Wings lineup against the Capitals:
Perron - Larkin - Raymond
DeBrincat - Compher - Kane
Fabbri - Copp - Fischer
Veleno - Czarnik - Sprong
Chiarot - Seider
Edvinsson - Petry
Maatta - Gostisbehere
Lyon
Reimer
The Capitals and Red Wings went through the first period scoreless, and Detroit outshot Washington 17-8. The Red Wings came off strong and played hard for the first 30 minutes of the game, being able to not allow any pucks in their net, but unfortunately seemed to fall apart in the remaining few minutes in the middle frame.
Dylan Strome gave the Capitals the 1-0 lead late in the second period at 2:13 with his 27th goal of the season, which marked his 300th NHL career point. He also matched his single-season career high in points (65; 2022-23 season). Strome's initial attempt had been blocked by J.T. Compher, but he went for it again from the right face-off circle and scored short side. With only seconds remaining on the clock, Alex Ovechkin increased the Capitals' lead to 2-0 on the rush to reach his milestone goal. After T.J. Oshie grabbed the puck at Washington's defensive blue line to go on to bank it off the left boards, Ovechkin got the puck and cracked a wrister past Alex Lyon at the top of the left face-off circle. He has scored 30 goals in all but one of his 19 NHL seasons (24 in 45 games in the shortened 2020-21 season), and Ovechkin currently has 852 goals, just 42 behind Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history.
Patrick Kane cut it to 2-1 with only two seconds remaining to help avoid being shutout and ending Charlie Lindgren's bid for his sixth of-the-season shutout. It had been Kane's 20th goal of the season (44 points; 20 goals, 24 assists).
Dylan Larkin on the 2-1 loss and how the Red Wings played: "It's a lot of emotions, frustrated... We played well, just couldn't put the puck in the net. It's the game so, very frustrated."
David Perron on the Red Wings' 2-1 loss and how they played: "It's slim at this time of year. You can tell the games are tight, not many power plays each way. Just extremely disappointed. I thought we executed the game plan that we wanted going into the game, a lot of traffic at the net, a lot of shots on net - we've been talking about that a lot more recently. Obviously, the first goal is big all the time and they got it," - "Obviously, you always want to do more if you don't score enough, but definitely a lot of really good looks, a lot of high-zone plays - We had a lot of guys sacrificing... Extremely disappointing."
Alex Ovechkin on the Capitals' victory and the game overall: "We all understand the importance of the game and the importance of those points. I think we fight for the playoffs, we fight their fight. I think it was a pretty intense game, both teams have pretty good chances, and both goalies played well and solid. We'll take it and move on."
Dylan Strome on the win and the game: "When you get up there with fresh guys against tired guys, you try to take advantage of it and we were able to do it that shift - It was a big goal to get us started," - "I think everyone's chipping in whether it's guys that have played 1,500 games or guys that have played 100 games or less... It's a big win, we got to keep it going. It means nothing if we lose the next couple."
Notes:
- Charlie Lindgren made 43 saves for Washington, and Alex Lyon made 21 saves for Detroit.
- The Capitals currently hold the second wild card into playoffs from the Eastern Conference with one point ahead of both the Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.
- Andrew Copp had broken his cheekbone after a hit by Nicolas Aube-Kubel's stick in the third period.
- Alex Ovechkin has 39 points in 35 games against the Red Wings (24 goals, 15 assists).
- The Capitals are 7-2-0 at the Little Caesars Arena since the 2017-18 season when the Red Wings moved into the venue.
- The Red Wings have failed to score a 5-on-5 goal for the fourth time in eight games.
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