The Washington Capitals saw their franchise-best road winning-streak end at 10 games on Monday after falling to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Arena 3-1.
After taking a 1-0 lead thanks to Dylan Strome’s third goal in the last four games, the Capitals could not solve Jake Oettinger (25 saves) further and watched the Stars chip away despite great goaltending at their own end by Charlie Lindgren.
Post-game, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery cited Oettinger, who is undefeated in five games against the Capitals, and the Stars’ harrow but decisive edge in special teams — the Capitals went 0 for 4 with the extra man while Dallas was 1 for 2 — as the main deciders in the game.
Roope Hintz scored twice while defenseman Lian Bichsel scored the game-winning goal in the second period, a shot from the point that was going wide, but hit off Rasmus Sandin’s hand and in.
The night was an otherwise good showing from the Capitals who both outshot the Stars 26 to 24 and out-attempted them at five-on-five, 52 to 36.
Here’s what Carbery said to reporters:
Spencer Carbery: I thought Oettinger was the big [difference], probably 1A. Special teams, probably 1B. And then probably 1C is they get a couple lucky breaks, but then they capitalize. Like the power play one, a couple of their top players make a good play shooting the net. The same thing on the third goal. They turn us over and obviously have to execute there shoot it past our goalie. So that’s credit to their top guys for capitalizing in those spots. But I liked a lot of the things that we did tonight, especially five-on-five.
I don’t mind our process tonight at all against a really good team. I thought we did enough to win the game, obviously power play, we needed more out of tonight, but I felt like we had some good looks at 1-0. Like Mikey’s got that one in the slot that hits the bar, so you push that to 2-0. You know, we got some good looks. You’ve got to give [Oettinger] credit. That’s a world-class goalie and there’s a reason why he’s one of the best in the world. But we have to, in those spots, we’ve got to find a way to break through and finish in those areas.
When these games are so tight against good teams, they make a few plays, we don’t. And that’s the difference in games. I hate to oversimplify it because there’s a lot of things that went on in 60 minutes. But it’s like the same thing. So that goal, the first goal, the penalty we take, we just make one little mistake. We take a high-sticking penalty and now next thing you know the game’s 1-1. So it’s a fine line when you’re playing in these games against really good teams where it’s pretty even on both sides. I felt like we carried, probably go back through the five-on-five chances, I bet we out-chanced them at five-on-five. But one or two plays here or there is the difference.
The Capitals will be back in action on Tuesday night, completing their back-to-back set of games against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.
