WASHINGTON – Nobody seems to slow down the Washington Capitals. The Ducks tried their best but added themselves to this juggernaut’s recent list of victims.
A three-goal blitz in an overwhelming first period seemed to have the Capitals on their way to a rout but the Ducks stormed back to tie the game, only to fall 6-4 as the NHL’s top team survived to get its 12th straight triumph at Verizon Center.
It was won in thrilling fashion for the Capitals and dispiriting if you’re the Ducks. Zach Sanford scored his first NHL goal with a screened shot that bounced in off John Gibson’s right arm with 2:39 left. Sanford, a 22-year-old rookie, was playing only because lineup regular Andre Burakovsky got hurt Thursday night.
As Logan Shaw failed to block it, Gibson looked up in anguish after making a number of big stops among his 33 saves to allow his teammates to mount a comeback. Marcus Johansson added an empty-net goal.
“They made a play,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “We had people in place. We had lots of people in place. We weren’t on the wrong side of the puck. We were on the good side of it. It was a very preventable goal.”
The Ducks (29-18-10) weren’t able to build off their win Thursday at Buffalo but this was going to be toughest of chores to handle no matter what frame of mind they were in. Washington now has the league’s best record at 39-11-6 and, naturally, most points with 84.
But the Ducks showed they weren’t going to just crawl away. Jakob Silfverberg and Hampus Lindholm scored in the second period and Ryan Kesler gave the Ducks a good look at the game in the third with his 19th goal. Pride had kicked in with force.
“Well, we came out and played hockey,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “We’re an elite team in this league too. If you stand here and watch this team like we did the whole first period, they’re going to put the puck in the back of your net.
“They’re a great hockey team over there. Flying high right now. I thought we did a better job coming out in the second and third period, dictating the play a little bit and allowing ourselves to get back in the game.”
After swimming upstream the entire game, Getzlaf collected Cam Fowler’s pinpoint stretch pass and got loose on a breakaway to beat the Capitals’ Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Braden Holtby for a 4-4 tie with 8:16 left. It didn’t seem like that was possible after the Capitals imposed their will in the opening 20 minutes.
The shot clock had Washington with a 16-5 advantage and the scoreboard read 3-0. T.J. Oshie scored on the power play while Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson tallied at even strength as the rout seemed to be on, which the Capitals have done often at home.
During their home streak, the Capitals have scored at least five goals in 11 straight contests to tie a record set originally by the 1970-71 Boston Bruins. They’ve averaged 4.59 goals per game during a 22-game run that’s left them leaving arenas victorious on 19 occasions.
“We don’t talk about stuff like that,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. “The only person that addressed that is probably [reporters]. I take more pride in winning the game. I take more pride in hopefully us going deeper in the playoffs.”
Lindholm helped keep the Ducks from run out of the arena. With his team needing any kind of offense, the defenseman jumped up in the play to get Getzlaf’s pinpoint stretch pass and put in his own rebound for a 4-2 deficit after Holtby made an initial save.
And it got to be further interesting when Kesler got Fowler’s pass in the slot and ended an 11-game goal drought with 10:22 left in the third to cash in Dmitry Orlov’s turnover.
“We just had a good talk in intermission,” Silfverberg said. “Obviously we weren’t happy about the first. We told ourselves that this is not the way we play. We’ve been playing good the last couple of games. Maybe not getting the results we wanted. Just try to get back to that. That’s what we did and I think we played a good second and third.
“This is one of the best teams in the league right now and we played two good periods. That’s not going to cut it against a team like this. You need a full 60-minute effort.”
Contact the writer: estephens@scng.com
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