Zach Fucale 2022 Report Card

The Washington Capitals had an ongoing goaltending carousel but while Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek were big parts of the story with all eyes on them, we did get to see some flashes of Zach Fucale.

Fucale went 1-1-1 in his three stars with a 1.75 goals against average and a .924 save percentage. He had a shutout in his NHL debut on Nov. 11 at the Detroit Red Wings where he stopped all 21 shots he faced.

Then in a loss to the St. Louis Blues on Jan. 7, Fucale came on in relief and stopped all seven shots. He would lose in a shootout his next game making 21 saves on 22 shots at the Minnesota Wild. Finally against the Boston Bruins on home ice, Fucale made 12 saves on 16 shots in a loss.

Fucale went 11-15-7 with the Hershey Bears last season with a 2.62 goals against average and a .896 save percentage. In the NHL, the six foot two, 189 pound goalie became the first goaltender in franchise history to record a shutout in his NHL debut.

In his second career NHL start on Jan. 8 against the Wild, the Laval, Quebec, native broke a Washington franchise record for the longest shutout streak by a goaltender from the start of a tenure with the franchise in the first period. That bested Cristobal Huet’s opening shutout sequence in 2008.

Fucale’s streak ended at 138 minutes and 17 seconds, beating Matt Hackett’s (Wild) mark of 102:48 that was set in 2011.

During the 2020-21 season, Fucale led the AHL in goals against average at 1.80 and ranked second in save percentage at .932, establishing career highs in both categories. He played the most games (11) he has played at the AHL level since the 2017-18 season, posting a 9-2-0 record.

Grade B-: Zach Fucale was called up and he had a shutout in his NHL debut. He also went triple digit minutes without allowing a goal. That’s pretty darn good.