The Washington Capitals dropped Friday night’s contest to the Pittsburgh Penguins by a final of 4-2. It was 3-0 entering the third period and the Caps answered with two goals but in the end the Penguins sealed it with an empty netter.
The Penguins struck first at 16:16 in the opening period from Danton Heinen. The Penguins led in shots 11-6 in the first 20.
In the second it was goals from Brock McGinn (yup that Brock McGinn from 2019) at 8:37 and Kasperi Kapanen at 11:42. The Caps led in shots 12-11 but were down 3-0 entering the final period with even worse news on the injury front.
Martin Fehervary and Tom Wilson both got hit and injured and couldn’t return. They both had upper body injuries. Fehervary left with 10:47 remaining in the second period after taking a shoulder to the head hit from McGinn. No call from the ref.
Wilson hurt himself on a collision with Marcus Pettersson and fell down to the ice running into goaltender Tristian Jarry. So the Caps were without them in the third period and who knows if they’ll play in tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Caps finally broke through in the third. At 7:33 Evgeny Kuznetsov finished off a breakaway with a backhander to beat Jarry. It was assisted by Alex Ovechkin and Daniel Sprong.
At 17:14 the Caps cut the deficit to one. Ovechkin found Lars Eller, with Conor Sheary proving the secondary assist. Eller ripped a shot right in and it was 3-2. That momentum was short lived as Jeff Carter provided the Penguins with the empty netter at 18:07. The Caps led in shots 13-11 in the third but not overall 33-31.
Coach Peter Laviolette didn’t provide any further updates on Fehervary and Wilson. He did confirm that Wilson got hurt on that slide into the goalie. He also said this on McGinn’s hit on Fehervary:
"“Marty went to move the puck off the stick and the player came through him and his head snapped pretty good. I think that is what they are evaluating.”"
The Caps look to bounce back tonight against the Buffalo Sabres with puck drop at 7 p.m.