Capitals vs. Stars Recap: Caps’ Comeback Comes Up Short

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The Capitals entered tonight’s contest in Dallas coming off of their first regulation loss in the month of January. Barry Trotz’s team fell into an early hole against the Stars, allowing three goals to get behind starting goaltender Justin Peters. Washington would come back to tie the game at three but some strong third period offense from the Stars was more than enough for Kari Lehtonen to get the win.

First, Saturday night’s Plus/Minus:

Plus/Minus:

• Plus: The Capitals’ comeback was started by Eric Fehr, scoring less than a minute after Jason Spezza, and completed by Alex Ovechkin’s breakaway to open the third period. The offense was working its magic and got rewarded, as they should.
• Minus: The Capitals, despite getting the early third period goal, would falter shortly thereafter and Dallas beat Justin Peters for two goals in the span of seventeen seconds. A late goal from Nicklas Backstrom gave Washington even more life but it would end up being too little too late.

And now, this…

Ten more notes on the game:

• Washington was coming off of their first regulation loss in the new year and faced the second of a back to back against a Stars team that most recently played on Thursday. Peters got the net tonight, which was his first action since November 29th against Toronto.
• The Capitals gave up the first goal for the second night in a row and, as is normal for this season, lost the game in regulation. Tyler Seguin scored on the power play less than two and a half minutes into the game after taking a nice pass from Spezza in the slot and firing home a wrist shot.
• Before the first period could end Erik Cole would dent Peters again for his 11th of the year, a deflection originally ruled no goal due to a high stick. However, upon video review, referees Chris Rooney and Darcy Burchell conclusively overturned the on-ice call, and awarded the Stars their second goal of the night.
• Spezza wasn’t just moving the puck well on the power play tonight, he also beat Peters with a classic slap shot that put the home team up by three goals and had the American Airlines Center on their feet.
• The Capitals would bounce back rather quixkly however, as Fehr turned on the red light behind Lehtonen with his 14th goal of the year. A series of passes from Brooks Laich and Joel Ward got the puck to Fehr at the top of the crease and he stashed it into the net on his forehand less than a minute after Spezza’s tally.
• Washington’s comeback was compelted by Andre Burakovsky‘s 6th, late in the second period, and then Alex Ovechkin’s 25th early in the third. Burakovsky ripped a wrist shot over Lehtonen’s glove hand and the Capitals’ Captain deked Dallas’ goalie down to the ice before depositing a shot inside the near post to tie the game.
• Dallas would also respond quickly, though, as Antoine Roussel put the Stars back in the lead less than three minutes after the Capitals tied the game. Sixteen seconds later Jaime Benn had the Stars comfortably up by two goals again after one touching a Seguin centering pass past Peters’ right side.
• Backstrom would make things interesting for Washington by scoring with a little more than three minutes to play but the two goal disadvantage would end up being too much to overcome. Washington played the final ninety seconds with six men but couldn’t find their fifth tally before the clock hit 60:00.
• Matt Niskanen, coming off an awful turnover and resulting GWG last night, picked up an assist to go along with three hits and one block in just under twenty minutes of play, It looks like Tortz and his crew are going to continue relying on Niskanen despite the bone-headed giveaway, and Washington will be better for it.
• The Capitals outshot their hosts by six but Lehtonon outperformed Peters and in the end that was tonight’s difference. One save, or one goal, the other way and Washington could’ve just as easily picked up at least a point on the road in the Western Conference.

Game Highlights: