The Washington Capitals fell to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday evening at Little Caesars Arena less than 24 hours after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Alex DeBrincat struck first for the Red Wings at 3:19 for his 14th goal of the season. Patrick Kane added his sixth goal of the season on the power play. Alex Ovechkin would silence the Mo Town crowd with his 17th goal of the season at 12:04 putting him at 870 in his career and 24 away from tying Wayne Gretzky. Jakob Chychrun and Connor McMichael had the assists, each with their 14th.
DeBrincat then got his second goal of the night and 15th of the season at 12:35. Then Lucas Raymond jacked in his 15th of the season at 14:18 to make it 4-1 which would be the score after the first 20 minutes. The Red Wings outshot the Caps 13-6.
Nobody scored in the second period as shots were 9-7 in favor of the Caps. In the third period Nic Dowd got one back at 10:27 for his 10th of the season. Taylor Raddysh upped his assist total to 13 whlle Brandon Duhaime picked up his fifth.
Caps had the edge in shots 12-7 in the third period while shots overall were tied at 27 apiece. The Caps went 0 for 3 on the power play while the Red Wings went 1 for 4. Detroit had the edge in face off win percentage 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent. The Caps had 10 penalty minutes to Detroit's eight.
Washington outhit Detroit 24-12 while the Red Wings had 18 blocked shots compared to the Capitals' nine. Detorit had 12 giveaways compared to the Capitals 11 and also had two takeaways. Charlie Lindgren picked up the loss as he stopped 23 out of the 27 shots he faced for a .852 save percentage.
With the loss the Capitals fall to 24-10-2 but still sit at second in the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference with 50 points. Next up for the Caps is a home New Years Eve matinee on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. against the Boston Bruins on Monumental Sports Network.