For the first two periods, it appeared the Capitals had fallen right into that trap. But over the final 20 minutes, Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson scored to put Washington in front before Evgeny Kuznetsov hit the empty net to seal a 3-1 win. Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves on 31 shots to win his second straight start.
“We started to build our game as the game went on,” Kuemper said. “They came out obviously working really hard, and you kind of felt our game building and gaining more control over the game. The goals weren’t coming, but [there’s] a lot of confidence in this group. Just keep doing the right things, and we get rewarded like we did.”
San Jose was in control early, so it wasn’t a surprise when the visiting team got on the board first. By the time Luke Kunin collected a puck off the end boards and tucked it past Kuemper at 11:40, the Sharks were outshooting the Capitals 7-2 and had the majority of the puck possession at even strength.
Washington pushed back late in the period, boosted by a dangerous power play and several scoring chances from designed faceoff plays, but San Jose goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood denied every opportunity. The Capitals weren’t getting nearly enough traffic in front of Blackwood, making his saves straightforward, without the threat of a deflection or a rebound.
“I felt like it was only a matter of time,” Strome said. “I think everyone had that belief in here. … We knew it just takes doing the right things. We had a lot of [offensive] zone shifts in a row. We knew guys were getting chances all over the place. Like I said, only a matter of time, and I felt like we had that mind-set. Coach said we were going to get three in the third, and we got three in the third.”
Early in the third period — when Washington had several players in front of the net — Strome’s shot from the point sailed through all of them and eluded Blackwood to tie the score. It was his sixth goal in the past five games.
“I loved that goal,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said. “I know it’s sort of a knuckler, catches Blackwood a little bit off guard, but it was the whole point of what we talked about between the second and third periods — getting the puck to middle ice in the offensive zone.”
After that, the Sharks (0-8-1) quickly reestablished momentum. But with just under five minutes left, Wilson’s backhander deflected off a San Jose player and into the net after a scramble in front, giving Washington the lead and Wilson the 300th point of his career.
It wasn’t a pretty goal, nor was it a pretty win, but it was enough to improve the Capitals’ record to 4-3-1 after a 1-3-1 start.
“It hasn’t been easy, certainly,” Carbery said. “But it’s good. It’s not easy to win in this league, as everybody knows. So when you string three wins together, however they look — shootouts, comebacks, whatever it is — we’re gaining some momentum.”
Here’s what else to know about the Capitals’ win:
Center Nic Dowd, who has been out with an upper-body injury since Oct. 18, was placed on injured reserve. The Capitals needed the salary cap space to call up center Hendrix Lapierre from their American Hockey League affiliate to replace winger Sonny Milano, who missed Sunday’s game with an illness.
Lapierre, a 21-year-old playing his first NHL game since a six-game stint to start the 2021-22 season, centered Washington’s fourth line with Beck Malenstyn at left wing and Aliaksei Protas on the right. The 2020 first-round draft pick skated 7:28 and lost all seven faceoffs he took.
“All the reports that we’ve got from [Hershey Coach Todd Nelson and associate general manager] Chris Patrick are he’s off to a good start down there,” Carbery said before the game. “Deserving of an opportunity.”
Haman Aktell’s first point
Defenseman Hardy Haman Aktell drew back into the lineup, replacing Alexander Alexeyev, after being a healthy scratch for the previous three games. Haman Aktell played just eight minutes at Montreal in his NHL debut Oct. 21, but Carbery wanted to give him another chance. On Sunday, he skated 12:43 while on the third pair with Nick Jensen. He had the secondary assist on Strome’s goal for his first NHL point.
“His first game [he had] the jitters and [was] playing in the Bell Centre, but I wanted to see him again, or we wanted to see him as a staff again back at home,” Carbery said. “I thought he was solid tonight.”