Washington’s 2-0 lead in the first period of Tuesday night’s tilt with the Blackhawks turned out to be fool’s gold. Playing for the second time in as many nights, the Caps never looked like themselves at Chicago’s United Center. The Capitals’ penalty kill allowed them to carry that two-goal lead into the third, but that’s where things fell apart in a 3-2 loss to the Hawks.
Ryan Donato’s individual effort goal with 2:18 left in regulation completed the Hawks’ comeback, snapping a 2-2 tie shortly after Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom made a save to deny Aliaksei Protas’ go-ahead bid. The lanky goaltender slid to his right and appeared to pin the puck between his skate and the post to deny Protas and preserve the deadlock.
For the Capitals, Tuesday’s game — their 31st game of the season — was the first full 60-minute clunker they’ve recorded this season. They never got on their game, and the Blackhawks hung in there despite trailing by two goals early, fizzing on each of the game’s first four power play opportunities.
“I just didn’t think we had it, from the beginning of the game to the end,” said Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We had nothing.”
PL Dubois got the Caps on the board early in the first, pushing the puck through Hawks defenseman Louis Crevier near the Chicago line, then beating the blueliner to the cracker. From the top of the paint, Dubois fired it through Söderblom, a shot that just crossed the goal line to put the Caps up 1-0 at 4:16 of the first.
Just over nine minutes later, Andrew Mangiapane — who missed Monday’s game in Dallas due to illness — doubled Washington’s lead with a highlight-reel goal.
Jakub Vrana and Lars Eller combined to win a puck battle along the Washington half-ice wall, and Eller fed Mangiapane on neutral ice, sending him into Chicago territory in a 1-on-1 situation with veteran defenseman TJ Brodie. Mangiapane went wide to the right, went over Brodie with a neat inside-out move, then cut straight left to the net. Mangiapane waited for Söderblom to commit and then took a wrist shot over him from the left side of the ice at 13:18.
“I didn’t think I had too much space there,” Mangiapane says, “so I just wanted to get it to the net. And I was able to get the mitts there and be able to put it in. It was definitely nice to get on the score sheet after missed last night there. But yeah, it’s hard to lose here.”
That was the high water mark for Washington on this night.
The middle frame was one of the worst the Caps have played this season, but they managed to escape it unscathed and still held their 2-1 lead. Washington went 15 minutes, 38 seconds without registering a shot on net in the second period, largely because it took three minor penalties in 5 minutes, 59 seconds in the middle of the middle frame. The first two of those infractions were minors for too many men on the ice; the two came just 2 minutes and 9 seconds apart.
Washington’s penalty kill was up to the task on all four occasions, limiting the Hawks to just four shots in the eight minutes with the extra man. Logan Thompson made a strong stop on Tyler Bertuzzi from the top of the paint on the first of those three Chicago power plays in the second period.
With less than two minutes left in the middle period, the Caps finally had their first offensive zone face-off of the entire game, a remarkable indicator of where most of the game was played. And despite winning 61 percent of the game’s faceoffs, the Caps didn’t seem to have the puck very often.
Washington’s first power play of the game came late in the second and was of the carry variety. And on the carry portion of that power play, a Caps turnover at the Chicago line sparked Chicago’s comeback. Teuvo Teravainen sent Ilya Mikheyev into the Washington ice, where the latter was able to get around Jakob Chychrun and go over the bar with a neat backhand shot 51 seconds into the third.
The Caps played arguably their best stretch of hockey after that goal, spending little time in the offensive zone and holding the Hawks without a shot for several minutes. But soon after a stretch of 4-on-4 hockey ended, Chicago manufactured the equalizer, with Mikheyev and Teravainen combining to set up Brodie — the late guy in the zone on the rush — for the tying goal at 14:07. Brodie beat Thompson on the blocking side with a wrist shot from just above the right circle.
The Hawks continued to buzz and Donato’s goal came on an extended offensive zone shift. Donato carried the puck from the right wing corner to the cage, then extended his range and stuffed it home from the top of the paint, placing it between Thompson’s plate and the left post to seal the deal for Chicago.
“I think even with the lead, we were lacking,” Caps defenseman John Carlson said. “We had two really, really good individual plays, and the rest was just sloppy. Looking at the whole game, I don’t think we played very well. It seemed like we were a little disjointed, a little disoriented, and we weren’t our usual selves .
“If we play even close to how we (usually) do with a two-goal lead, I think the game is a lot different. But we didn’t, and then you leave yourself open to things happening.”
