Photo credit: Rob Carr
The Washington Capitals were outplayed by the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. Despite Troy Brouwer’s protestations otherwise, the Caps were steadily outshot — attempted or on goal — throughout the game. Nevertheless, winning hockey games always requires some luck, and the Caps had it late against the Wild.
“Sometimes you gotta get goals like that,” head coach Adam Oates told reporters. “It took a lot of work and we fought through a lot of frustration.”
With the team down by one with just over three minutes left, the second line established the cycle behind the net. Marcus Johansson then gathered the puck at the far circle. Swinging around, he fired a “shot pass” to the net, looking for a rebound. Instead, he found the knee of Wild defenseman Nate Prosser, who was tangled up with Brooks Laich. For Mojo, it was his second goal in as many games. The Wild were pissed at Laich, but the scored was tied. Washington would win it in the talent show.
“I knew if I got it there there was a chance it would go in,” Johansson said. “It was a lucky bounce, but sometimes that’s what you need.”
But Laich, though, wasn’t satisfied with lucky.
“We’re certainly gonna have to play better than we did tonight,” he said. “We escaped with a win. … We expect more out of ourselves.”
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