Capitals Fall to Sharks on Super Bowl Sunday

The Washington Capitals fell to the San Jose Sharks 4-1 Sunday afternoon, just hours before the Super Bowl. After a statement win against the first place Bruins Saturday, the Capitals failed to shut down the 28th place Sharks on the end of a back-to-back.

Anthony Mantha did not play due to an illness, and was replaced by Aliaksei Protas, who repped Ashburn on his way to the locker room while accompanied by a youth hockey player of that team for Caps Youth Hockey Day.

Just 2:54 into the game, the San Jose Sharks opened the scoring on a goal by Evgeny Svechnikov beating Capitals goaltender, Charlie Lindgren. The Svechnikov marker would be the lone goal in the opening period, where the Capitals outshot the Sharks 9-7.

The Sharks extended their lead near the halfway mark in the middle frame, with Alexander Barabanov scoring on the power play. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his 8th of the year late in the second period to cut the Sharks lead in half, but it deemed to be the lone goal for the Capitals. The Sharks outshot the Capitals 13-4 in the second period.

Erik Karlsson re-gained San Jose’s two goal lead 12:55 into the third period, and Tomas Hertl would eventually seal the game with an empty net goal. Final shots in the game were 33-21 in favor of the Sharks.

The Washington Capitals will look to bounce back this Tuesday night, when they host the Metro’s best, Carolina Hurricanes at Capital One Arena. Game time will commence at 7:00 PM EST.

Although the Caps have played good on Super Bowl Sunday they haven’t lately as they dropped their sixth straight game on the day of the big football game. Their last win was a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. You may remember that game when people got those Ovi faces.