We warned you guys and feared that this might happen. It did. The Chicago Blackhawks have won in D.C. for the first time since Jan. 2006. My math is wrong, that was Alex Ovechkin‘s rookie season. It was that long since the Washington Capitals lost to the Blackhawks on home ice.
The first was pretty even as the Blackhawks had the slight edge in shots 9-8. The visitors broke through with a goal with a minute to go in the first period from Alex DeBrincat.
At 1:10 in the second period the Caps tied it up. They entered the zone and worked the puck around. It went from Garnet Hathaway to Carl Hagelin. Nic Dowd cut toward the net and got a feed right in front for his third goal of the season.
At 12:57 the Blackhawks took the lead back on a tally from Dominik Kubalik. The Caps tied it right back up at 17:31. Ovechkin tried to make a pass toward the middle to Aliaksei Protas. He didn’t get the puck, at least from the looks of it and neither did netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. With the loose puck sitting right behind Fleury, Evgeny Kuznetsov made him pay, banging it in for his eighth goal of the year.
It was all even at two at the end of two. The Caps led in shots 10-9. The second period ended with Hathaway serving an elbowing penalty. The Caps killed off the remainder of the second and the start of the third period to keep the game tied.
Hathaway came right out of the box and got a long pass on the breakaway from his podcast bro Dowd. Hathaway finished it for his sixth goal of the season.
Unfortunately for the Caps, that would not go on to be the game winning goal. Seth Jones tied it at 11:56. The Blackhawks led in shots 8-7 in the third period and the game would be tied going to overtime.
The three on three would turn out scoreless as the Caps led in shots 3-2. Shots were even overall at 28 apiece. With goals and shots even, the game had no choice but to go to a shootout. Despite this being the Caps first shootout of the season, it was no different than the previous overtimes.
Kuznetsov missed. Jonathan Toews got stopped by Vitek Vanecek. Daniel Sprong missed. Then Patrick Kane broke the plane and Ovechkin got stopped on the other end. Game over, Blackhawks come out of D.C. with a win.