Capitals end west coast road trip with close loss to Avalanche

The Washington Capitals fell to the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 last night in Denver.

Artturi Lehkonen struck firs for he home team at 8:57. 1-0 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 13-9.

Andrew Cogliano doubled the lead at 2:04. Conor Sheary got the Caps on the board for his first goal in 12 games at 4:48. It was his 12th goal of the season and was assisted by Martin Fehervary and Anthony Mantha. Alex Newhook made it 3-1 at 15:39. Shots were 14-11 Avs in the second period.

At 9:44 in the third Alex Ovechkin scored from the office for his 31st goal of the season. Dylan Strome had the assist and Ovechkin is now 83 behind Wayne Gretzky with 811 goals.

Ovechkin missed Saturday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights with a lower body injury, a game in which the Caps lost 6-2. Although they got Ovechkin back, they lost Tom Wilson early in the game. He is now day to day.

The Caps outshot the Avalanche 15-3 in the third period and 39-26 overall. They couldn’t get the equalizer as they dropped two of three from the west coast road trip.

Evgeny Kuznetsov told the media after the game:

“We try hard. That was a pretty competitive game from both teams, and they got their goals. We had our push; we made it a one-goal game. In the end, I felt like we got some good looks — we just did not score.”

Next up for the Caps is a big home game on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The loss dropped the Caps to the second Wild Card spot and the Penguins were the team that passed them after they got a 7-6 win over the Florida Panthers.

The Caps and Pens each have 56 points and have three teams within striking distance of them. The Pens also have three games in hand. Those three teams are the Buffalo Sabres, Panthers, and New York Islanders.