The Washington Capitals are in TJ Oshie’s old stomping grounds to take on Marcus “Mojo” Johansson and the Minnesota Wild.
The Caps are 5-5 in the month of January and currently in a stretch of games that Spencer Carbery thinks will define the team’s season.
The Capitals will get Rasmus Sandin back in the lineup as he’s ready to return from injury. Darcy Kuemper will start. Ethan Bear will notably sit while Hendrix Lapierre has been returned to Hershey to make room for Sandin on the active roster.
Tonight’s game is on Monumental Sports Network. Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin have the call. Puck drop is a little after 8 pm.
Capitals lines
Alex Alexeyev, Matthew Phillips, and Ethan Bear are the scratches.
Lineys!#CapsWild | @JackDaniels_US pic.twitter.com/qrLwyK017X
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 24, 2024
Caps weirdness
1st Period
Charlie Lindgren will oppose Filip Gustavsson in net. Malenstyn-Dowd-Wilson and Fehervary-Carlson get the start. Wild start Boldy-Eriksson Ek-Foligno and Middleton-Bogosian.
🚨 1-0 Wild. Brock Faber gets a fortunate bounce and scores on an empty net. Faber’s fourth of the year came 1:36 into the game.
🚨 2-0 Wild. Caps turn it over in neutral. As the Wild rewind and bring it into the offensive zone, Marcus Foligno jumps and catches a deflected pass out of the air, places it down around the goal line, and slaps it in before Kuemper can recover. The goal comes 4:42 in the period.
The Pacioretty-Strome-Oshie line was on the ice for both early goals against.
Caps go to the power play after Marco Rossi commits a minor. The Caps need to take advantage. The Wild are not good on the PK sporting a 72.8 percent kill percentage — third worst in the NHL.
#ALLCAPS Kuzy troll pic.twitter.com/Wrc9S7wvwN
— x – Capitals Replays 🍁 (@capsreplays) January 24, 2024
Trevor van Riemsdyk to the box for hoooking Brandon Duhaime at 15:45.
Jonas Brodin commits interference on TVR at the 18:58 mark. Caps get a late period power play.
The Capitals outshot the Wild 9 to 8 but Minnesota narrowly out-attempted them at five-on-five, 15-14. The Wild had four high-danger chances at five-on-five, while the Caps had none.
2nd Period
Puck is dropped.
Caps can’t score on their power play to start the period.
🚨 3-0 Wild. Marcus Johansson catches Kuemper leaning and beats him with a wrist shot. Another semi-bad one from Kuemps. Johansson’s seventh of the year comes at 6:28. Caps in a huge hole to dig out of.
🚨 3-1 Wild. Kuzy skates laterally across the offensive zone and fires a pass with pace to Anthony Mantha who chips it past Gustavsson. It’s Mantha’s 13th goal of the season and his 10th first-goal for the Capitals in a game, which leads the team. The goal came exactly at the 10:00 mark of the period.
Huge glove save by an aggressively challenging Kuemper on Brodin, who had a wide open shot in the slot.
Nic Dowd to the box at 15:02 for hooking Ryan Hartman. He is NOT HAPPY and screaming at the ref.
The Wild are outshooting the Capitals 22 to 21 overall and out-attempting them 32 to 27 at five-on-five.
3rd Period
Puck is dropped.
🚨 4-1 Wild. Joel Eriksson Ek scores on the rush down the right wing and this one is about over. Tally came 1:37 into the period. Eriksson Ek now has 20 goals on the season.
Ryan Hartman to the box for tripping Anthony Mantha at the 6:04 mark.
🚨 5-1 Wild. Marcus Johansson beats Kuemper to the far corner of the net at the 13:39 mark. He’s got a two-goal game against his former mates. It’s Mojo’s second multi-goal game of the season.
🚨 5-2 Wild. TJ Oshie deflects a John Carlson shot past Gustavsson on the power play.
🚨 5-3 Wild. Anthony Mantha scores in front of the net on a rebound after a fantastic wraparound attempt by Beck Malenstyn. The goal comes at the 18:24 mark.
Darcy Kuemper pulled for an extra attacker around the 1:25 remaining mark.
From the goal line, John Carlson blocks Marcus Johansson’s shot at the empty net for a hat trick at the last second. That’s kinda cold, not gonna lie. Haha.
Caps lose 5-3 and looked pretty overwhelmed at five-on-five throughout the night. Didn’t get the big saves from Darcy again.
Washington outshot the Wild 34 to 30, but was out-attempted by Minnesota 46 to 39 at five-on-five.
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