The road appeared to start to wear on the Washington Capitals as they faced the Anaheim Ducks, and while they kept their point streak alive, they couldn’t do enough to leave with two.
Tom Wilson, Ethen Frank and Aliaksei Protas scored in regulation and the Capitals hung on to go the distance to a shootout, but they lost Ryan Leonard to injury, exchanged momentum one too many times and ultimately, fell in a skills competition, 4-3.
Here are the takeaways.
The Capitals got on the board first once again, and, as has been the case often this season, it was Tom Wilson who found the twine early on.
Wilson got to the slot and fired home a feed from Justin Sourdif to open the scoring. It marked his team-leading 17th goal of the season and his sixth goal in the last seven games.
The 31-year-old ranks tied for fourth in the NHL in goals this season and continues to show his offensive prowess and leadership.
Late in the first period, Ryan Leonard was handing off the puck behind the net in the offensive zone when he looked up to see Jacob Trouba, lowering the shoulder and going in for a big check. His shoulder caught Leonard high and sent the rookie to the ice, leaving him bloodied.
The five-minute major penalty initially assessed to Trouba was overturned, and the only call was against Jakob Chychrun, who’d retaliated following the hit on Leonard. Anaheim struck seconds after the ensuing power play came to an end.
Leonard had entered Friday’s contest riding a four-game point streak and ranking fourth among rookies in scoring. He was ruled out entirely following the second period.
After a rough first period, the Capitals and Ducks exchanged momentum in a back and forth middle frame, where two familiar suspects got on the board for D.C. to generate offense.
Ethen Frank struck on a rebound early in the second, though Ross Johnston would respond for the Ducks just 13 seconds later. Then, minutes after Anaheim evened the score, Aliaksei Protas got to the front and put home a rebound to extend his point streak to five games and make it 3-2. Beckett Sennecke tied things up again to close the second.
Washington also had to spend quite a bit of time on the kill in the second period, taking three penalties and four overall on the night.
While D.C. was able to generate quite a few chances, the Capitals played a bit too loose, and having to kill multiple penalties against didn’t help, either.
The Capitals power play had found its rhythm of late, with Ryan Leonard’s presence being a big factor in its success, but without Leonard, things fell flat as the team failed to convert on a key third-period opportunity.
Washington ultimately went 0-for-2 in the third and 0-for3 overall on the night as it failed to generate high-danger chances on the man advantage or execute tape-to-tape passes.
The Capitals were able to survive a wild third period, where they were outshot 8-3, to grab a point out of the game. In overtime, the Ducks had extended zone time and three shots to D.C.’s one, but strong defensive play, especially from Wilson, and a standout performance from Logan Thompson helped take things to a shootout.
There, Anthony Beauvillier struck for Washington, but Mason MacTavish had the shootout winner for the Ducks.