Capitals fall short to the Coyotes

The Washington Capitals allowed a combined 11 goals in their two matchups with the Arizona Coyotes. That is not how you play playoff style hockey whatsoever. Today's setback was a 5-2 defeat and there isn't another Caps game until Thursday night. Of course it comes in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. It would be that matchup the day before the trade deadline.

Logan Cooley who is in no relation to Washington Football legend Chris Cooley made it 1-0 at 7:33. Then it was power plays galore the rest of the way as only one other goal was scored at even strength the rest of the way. Shots were 10-7 in favor of Arizona after 20.

In the second a Jason Zucker PPG made it 2-0 at 4:06. Less than two minutes later at 6:02 Sonny Milano tipped in a shot from Alex Ovechkin with Rasmus Sandin providing the secondary helper to get the Caps on the board. It was Milano's eighth goal of the season.

43 seconds later the Coyotes answered with the final even strength goal of the game coming from Michael Kesselring. Dylan Guenther gave the Coyotes a 4-1 cushion with a PPG at 18:01. That would be the score after two with the Coyotes leading 13-10 in the shot department in the middle stanza.

In the third the Caps narrowly outshot them 9-5 but were still outshot 28-26 when the final horn sounded. Anthony Mantha got the Caps closer with a long shot 10 seconds in for a PPG and his 20th of the season. Dylan Strome had the apple.

But that would be the closest the Caps would get as Nick Schmaltz scored an empty net goal with 21 seconds to go to make it a 5-2 final. It was a disappointing afternoon nonetheless. The Caps couldn't afford to lose that game especially with no other games for them until Thursday night.