Washington, D.C. — The Red Wings need points in these final games of the regular season. They can’t afford letting games slip away without earning anything in the points column.

But Tuesday, playing against the Eastern Conference’s best team, the Wings will return home with no points losing 4-1 to the rampaging Capitals.

Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson scored Washington goals midway in the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie, then Connor McMichael added insurance as the Capitals – similar to 11 days ago here in Washington – the third period was not kind to the Wings.

“It’s frustrating, it’s been kind of happening too often where we put together a good 40 or so minutes together and have things come unraveled on us,” defenseman Ben Chiarot said. “Guys have to learn from it and get better at it. We did a good job of it for a stretch there when (coach) Todd (McLellan) and (assistant coach) Trent (Yawney) came in and for whatever reason, we’re not getting it done now.”

It was a brisk, unusual type of game as there were no penalties called the entire evening. There was a definite sense of playoff hockey in the building – and the Wings came out maddeningly short.

BOX SCORE: Capitals 4, Red Wings 1

“That’s two games against this team that we’re in (the game) and they found a way to win and we didn’t,” forward J.T. Compher said. “Every point is important right now and we know how crucial every game is.”

Dubois broke a 1-1 tie at 8 minutes, 16 seconds of the third period. Dubois fluttered a shot that appeared to nick the shot of Justin Holl and got under goaltender Petr Mrazek’s arm for Dubois’ 18th goal.

Wilson extended the lead to 3-1 with his 30th goal, skating unaccounted for into the slot and tapping a loose puck past Mrazek at 14:21.

“The third (goal) makes no sense, we get beat up ice again and don’t put ourselves in a situation we have to pull the goaltender,” coach Todd McLellan said. “That has to get fixed. That’s the only way we’re going to improve as a hockey club, rebound from things that don’t go our way and to have that happen is disappointing.

“We were way better this game than we were (11) days ago. That implosion didn’t make any sense to me. This one, so they scored the second (goal), what are we going to do? It was a sneaky shot, fortunate, we’re still OK. So give your teammates a chance to use the six minutes to pull the goaltender and we’re going to overtime at 2-2 or losing 3-1. We look up with three minutes left and it’s 4-1. That can’t happen.

“You still have to check for your chances, you can’t open it up and pout and get lazy. Perhaps we did that and maybe that’s the lesson we’re learning.”

The Wings (32-30-6) missed an opportunity to move closer to a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Montreal moved into the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card spot with its victory over Ottawa. Montreal has 73 points, a point ahead of the New York Rangers (72), who lost to Calgary.

The New York Islanders, Columbus and Detroit all have 70 points – but the Wings do now have three teams between themselves and the final wild-card spot.

“I wish we would have capitalized tonight and it felt like we were right there to get points again,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “It’s hard to come back up here and say that every night but we just did it to ourselves tonight. Now we go on the road and we have to find a way to start winning hockey games.”

Larkin tied the game 1-1 midway in the first period. Chiarot made a move near the top circle and fed a driving Lucas Raymond who batted a puck toward net. Goalie Logan Thompson left a juicy rebound that Larkin raced to and snapped a shot past Thompson, Larkin’s 28th goal, at 12:28.

Dylan Strome had the Capitals’ first goal.

The Wings lost forward Elmer Soderblom in the third period to an unspecified injury. McLellan had no update after the game.

Players have talked about the excitement of these games in the season’s final weeks, with a playoff spot on the line. Last season’s race to the finish was similar, and this season is beginning to take the same shape.

“It’s the most fun time of the year other than playoffs,” said Alex DeBrincat, who played in his 600th NHL game. “I’d say this is basically playoffs for us. We need to win every game. You feel the energy around the room. Everyone is ready to play.”

The Wings kept Washington star Alex Ovechkin off the goal-scoring column, keeping Ovechkin eight goals away (887) from passing Wayne Gretzky (894) for most goals in NHL history.

Ovechkin had eight goals in his past 11 games heading into Tuesday’s game.

“Hope he’s not going to break it (tonight). That would be ugly,” McLellan joked after the morning skate, adding he never thought Gretzky’s record would ever be broken. “No, I didn’t think it 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?”

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan

Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.