Capitals drop heartbreaker to Coyotes

The Washington Capitals blew a 2-0 third period lead on Saturday night on Capital One Arena. To make it worse it came to the Arizona Coyotes who scored three unanswered goals. The silver lining is Alex Ovechkin at least made history.

If you’re looking for another silver lining, those reverse retros are sweet. But that’s about it.

The first period was scoreless as the Caps outshot the Coyotes 16-10.

In the second period the Caps struck first on the power play at 8:55 from none other than the great eight himself. It was his seventh goal of the season and 787th of his career. He passed Gordie Howe for the most goals in NHL history with one team. Trevor van Riemsdyk and Anthony Mantha had the assists.

1-0 was the score after 40 with the Caps leading in shots 7-6.

At 3:23 the Caps went up 2-0 on a goal from Anthony Mantha for his fourth of the season. It was a nice play taking advantage of a loose puck and backhanding it in.

Then things unraveled.

Jose Brown put the Coyotes on the board. The Caps challenged for goaltender interference. They lost that challenge and the call stood. It came at 6:33

Then Nick Ritchie struck one off the crossbar but the puck crossed the line completely for a good goal to tie the game. That one came at 9:45.

Ritchie scored again this time with 35.4 seconds left. Darcy Kuemper thought he made the save but the puck trickled through his legs and Ritchie was there to poke it in and stun the crowd at Capital One Arena.

3-2 was the final. It was the Caps fourth loss in a row and second straight in regulation. It drops their record to 5-6-2.

This game was supposed to be a sure win. It was certainly the easiest game of the homestand. Now they got Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers coming to town on Monday night.