DALLAS — The Washington Capitals had just played their worst period of the season, but as they took their seats in the locker room at the second intermission Saturday night, they knew they were not out of the game.
The hockey gods instead gave the Capitals a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, who scored all their goals in that second period. The Capitals scored all their goals in the third period to stage a rally that ultimately fell short.
The Capitals could curse the post Tom Wilson’s shot clanged off with 36 seconds left in the game that kept them from pulling at least a point from the contest, but they acknowledged that it was a turnover-riddled second period that put them in that position.
“We self-destructed,” Capitals Coach Barry Trotz said.
The Capitals haven’t beaten the Dallas Stars since Oct. 25, 2008, a date that was written on the whiteboard in Washington’s locker room in American Airlines Center as motivation. In a season in which the Capitals (40-10-4) have set new standards with their impressive record, the Stars continued to be their kryptonite.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak, and it was just the second regulation loss in 33 games for goaltender Braden Holtby. After he gave up four goals on 17 shots in the second period, he was yanked, replaced by backup Philipp Grubauer after intermission. Trotz said he pulled Holtby because he was “tired of him covering up the mistakes” of the team in front of him.
With Grubauer making 10 saves to keep the Stars scoreless in the third period, the model of trying to get a goal every five minutes nearly worked. Alex Ovechkin scored on a power play from his sweet spot in the left faceoff circle four minutes into the period. Justin Williams then got a goal less than four minutes later to halve the deficit.
“We knew we could come back here,” Andre Burakovsky said. “You just have to believe it. We’ve done it before, and we knew what to do. We all talked about, ‘Let’s just leave everything out there, and let’s do what we can do there.’ I think we came out and did a really good period. Just sucks it wasn’t enough.”
Burakovsky’s goal 13 minutes 54 seconds into the period made what would have been Washington’s greatest comeback of the season seem possible. They had made comebacks earlier this season; down 3-0 against Tampa Bay halfway through a game, they came back to win in regulation.
They had done it against the Rangers by scoring six unanswered goals after being down by two at the first intermission.
But with its goaltender pulled for the last minute of the game, Washington didn’t make up for its poor start. The Capitals got three shot attempts, including the puck Wilson rang off the post.
“An inch more inside that post would have tied it up, and we’d probably be looking at overtime,” Trotz said. “We deserve what we got. We didn’t play a complete game. If we’re going to be a good team, you got to be consistent through three periods, and we were not.”
Attempts at skating through the neutral zone often would result in the puck on a Dallas stick, and if Washington did make it to the offensive zone, maintaining possession was a challenge. After a scoreless first period, Dallas was able to take advantage of the Capitals’ mistakes.
Williams turned the puck over in the offensive zone, and the result was a two-on-one rush, with Mattias Janmark sending the puck under Holtby’s armpit. The Stars reeled off three more goals, putting the game out of reach even for the Capitals.
“It’s pretty simple, right?” Williams said. “You’re playing an elite team, you can’t play a turnover battle. That’ll be the result most of the time.”
