The Washington Capitals defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-1 on Sunday evening at Capital One Arena. While the Caps offense waited until the third period to turn it on, it was goaltender Darcy Kuemper who kept his team in the game. If it wasn’t for his performance there would be no third period comeback.
Kuemper made nine stops in the first period, only letting one shot get by him. And that was the only shot that got by him the entire night. He stopped all 11 shots he faced in the second and all 10 he faced in the third.
The Caps didn’t get penalized the entire game so the Sharks power play was completely off the ice. Kuemper stopped 27 of 28 shots on even strength while stopping all three that he faced while shorthanded. In all Kuemper stopped 30 of the 31 shots that he faced for a .968 save percentage.
Kuemper’s performance earned him the second star of the game. He improves his record to 3-2-1 with a 2.92 goals against average and a .903 save percentage.
Kuemper spoke after the game on his team’s win and how they persevered after allowing the game’s first goal to the opposition:
"“Patience and maturity. We kinda felt our game building, gaining more control of the game. The goals weren’t coming but there’s a lot of confidence in this group to just keep doing the right things and we’d get rewarded like we did.”"
Grade A-: Darcy Kuemper has had two solid games in a row after a slow start to the season. This was also his first win where he didn’t have to make 37 or more saves. He only faced 31 shots on the night. If the Caps defense continues to play well in front of Kuemper he could have a huge season.
Coming up next we grade the offense. Stay tuned!