Facing the Minnesota Wild, aka the second-best team in a very tough Central Division, last night’s game could have gone sideways much earlier than it did – and thanks to a little resilience and some timely goals, they came away with a point.
Late in the first period, Charlie Lindgren executed his second puck-handling blunder of the season (seriously, we are going to strap him to the goal posts, a la Goldberg in the Mighty Ducks) that resulted in a go-ahead goal for Minnesota. Good on his teammates for not letting that be the game-winning goal and doing what they’ve done all season: pick each other up.
Unfortunately, it ended up not being enough, as they fell to the visiting Wild in the shootout – but the fact that they even got to the shootout is the product of a rough series of plays that turned the tide.
First, with the Caps up 3-2 and about nine minutes remaining in regulation Tom Wilson appeared to score to extend the lead to two with this play, that was quickly waved off – and then confirmed by video review – for being hit with a high stick:
Cool play, and yes, Wilson was crouching so his stick wouldn’t be as high…but that’s definitely above the crossbar. Tough break.
It got tougher just seconds later. The Wild got a 3-on-2 break the other way, Ryan Hartman put a shot toward net that was knocked down by Marco Rossi in front of Lindgren, and then Rossi grabbed the rebound and put it into the net.
Tie game, a goalless overtime and then just a single goal in the shootout by Matt Boldy and that was it. Not the worst game for the Caps – and a loss where you still get a point and it’s not against a division/conference rival is not the worst type of loss you can get – but that emotional rollercoaster in the third and just a few mistakes overall cost the Caps in this one.