Red Wings beat the Capitals in a shootout Friday night
By Stefan Kubus –
DETROIT – After a strong, thorough game, it looked like another one that wasn’t going to go Detroit’s way when the league’s leading scorer struck with just seven seconds left to tie the game up for visiting Washington.
Alex Ovechkin’s 39th goal of the season forced overtime and eventually a shootout, where Patrick Eaves and stellar goaltending by Jimmy Howard sealed a 4-3 win for Detroit Friday night at Joe Louis Arena – the 3,000th home game in Detroit history – over the Washington Capitals.
Eaves’ goal came in the seventh round, and Howard stopped all seven Washington shooters along with making 26 saves through 65 minutes to help Detroit hold on for the win. Drew Miller, Danny DeKeyser and Gustav Nyquist scored for Detroit in regulation.
“I would’ve liked to get the two points in regulation, so they got none, but we just missed a lane there at the end; Ovechkin’s a dangerous guy,” said coach Mike Babcock, who picked up his 400th win in the Detroit victory. “I thought our team played real well tonight, basically from start to finish.”
Known for his playmaking abilities, Nicklas Backstrom – who will be joining Detroit’s Swedes in Sochi – made a a nifty feed to Jason Chimera at the backdoor for a power-play, tap-in goal and the 1-0 lead with 5:42 to play in the opening frame. That came after Detroit established power play pressure of their own, but alas, the Red Wings headed off after 20 minutes down 1-0.
In fact, the Red Wings recorded 22 shots in the first period alone for their highest total in any period this season, but Washington netminder and former Plymouth Whalers goalie Michal Neuvirth battled to keep his Caps in the game.
“I thought he was outstanding,” Babcock said. “Which part is him being outstanding and us not making our shots? I can’t answer that question, but he played real well for them.”
Just 2:09 into the second stanza, Neuvirth came charging out of his crease to challenge Miller for a loose puck. Miller was able to poke the puck past him, but into the corner. Before Neuvirth could scramble back to his crease, Luke Glendening threw a puck toward the mad scramble in front of the net and Miller banged home the rebound into an empty net to tie the game up.
Just after announcing that it was the Red Wings’ 3,000th home game late in the period, Riley Sheahan won the ensuing draw in the left circle right back to DeKeyser at the middle of the ice, who one-timed the puck past Neuvirth for the 2-1 lead with 1:39 remaining. That was DeKeyser’s second goal and third point in two games against the Caps this season.
After 40 minutes, the Red Wings had recorded 12 power-play shots on goal, while Washington amassed 13 shots in total.
Casey Wellman tied the game up at 8:09 of the third period, but Nyquist’s 10th of the season at 10:15 regained the lead for Detroit. Nyquist corralled the puck in the neutral zone, skated up the ice and into the Caps’ zone, cut to the middle and shot it through Abdelkader’s legs as a screen to beat Neuvirth.
“(Abdelkader) did a great job driving to the middle and bringing both guys to him, and I just cut behind him and tried to shoot between his legs for the screen,” Nyquist said of his goal.
With Tomas Jurco in the sin bin for slashing with less than four minutes to play in the game, the Red Wings stifled a late Caps’ power play that featured the league leaders in power play goals (Ovechkin), assists and points (Backstrom).
After what was a relatively quiet night for Ovechkin, he tied the game up with a one-timer from the point and Neuvirth pulled to make it 3-3 with just seven seconds to play in regulation.
“It was a tough one to give up that late, seven seconds left,” Nyquist said. “We really battled all game I thought, but we’ve had a tough time in the shootout scoring, just one goal today. It was great to see Patty’s shot go in and Howie came up huge for us.”
In the seventh round of the shootout, Eaves finally scored – the only player to do so – and Howard stopped the Caps’ Jay Beagle to seal the win.
“I was watching the guys that went before me,” Eaves said. “(Neuvirth) was so patient with the other guys and he didn’t come out very far, but he was so patient and he battled, so I just wanted to get a good, quick shot off.”
It’s a tight race with 28 games still remaining in the season, but those two valuable points boosted Detroit into the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card spot, with 59 points on the season.
“Any points at this point are huge for us,” Eaves said. “We’ve got to make a push here until the Olympic break and hopefully start hot then.”