DETROIT — The Washington Capitals needed a hero.
For long, sometimes interminable, stretches of Tuesday’s game at Little Caesars Arena, that hero was goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who kept the Detroit Red Wings at bay as they launched repeated onslaughts. With 2:13 left in the second period, the hero became center Dylan Strome, who broke the stalemate and gave the Capitals a lead they almost couldn’t believe they had taken.
There’s an extra bit of jubilation that comes out in the celebration of goals like Strome’s, goals that keep a season alive when it looked to be on the brink and bring back something that feels like hope. Washington rode the momentum-shifting tally from Strome — and one barely two minutes later from captain Alex Ovechkin, who has long been the Capitals’ hero — to a critical 2-1 victory that ended a six-game skid (0-4-2).
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“It was a big goal to get us started,” Strome said, “and obviously that game doesn’t go our way without Chuckie. He played unbelievable. He’s been doing that for the last however many months now.”
The win was one the Capitals desperately needed and pushed Washington back into the second and final wild-card position in the Eastern Conference with four games remaining.
Lindgren’s shutout bid was broken up by Patrick Kane with 1.1 seconds left, but with 42 saves on 43 shots, Lindgren carried Washington. Alex Lyon stopped 21 of 23 for the Red Wings.
“We were able to weather the storm there and settle in,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said. “Chuckie made some massive saves. We blocked a bunch of shots. Just were trying to hang on and give ourselves a chance to find our footing. … They pushed in the third, and we did enough to hang on.”
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It was a sluggish start for the Capitals, with shades of the high-pace game that turned ugly for Washington the last time it was in Detroit. But Lindgren was locked in from the first shot he saw — a try from between the circles by Dylan Larkin after a turnover by winger T.J. Oshie — and he kept the Capitals afloat even when they struggled to maintain possession of the puck or build any positive momentum.
The second period was more of the same for the first 10-plus minutes, but on the shifts before Strome’s goal, the tide had slowly started to turn, sparked by — in Carbery’s view — center Hendrix Lapierre’s line with wingers Max Pacioretty and Sonny Milano. Their ability to get the puck behind Detroit’s defense and create turnovers on the forecheck helped Washington slow the pace and start to frustrate Detroit, leading to the kind of sustained pressure that the Red Wings put on the Capitals for much of the game.
As J.T. Compher attempted to clear the puck out of Detroit’s zone, facing wave after wave of attack from Washington, defenseman Martin Fehervary swatted the puck down and fed it to Strome with time and space in the right faceoff circle.
“[Strome] puts so much pressure on himself to deliver in big moments and make the play,” Carbery said. “I was happy for him because you can see it in his face now, having gotten to know him, how happy he is. Not for himself — for the team, that he’s scoring a huge goal to get us up when our season’s on the line.”
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Often during the Capitals’ recent skid, they would take a one-goal lead but wouldn’t be able to build on it, leaving the door open for their opponent to make a comeback. They also had been on the wrong end of deflating goals in the final minute of a period. With one flick of his Bauer Vapor Hyperlite stick, after receiving a feed across the blue line from Oshie, Ovechkin changed that.
Part of the reason Ovechkin has scored 852 career goals, now just 42 away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record, and topped Mike Gartner’s record of 17 30-goal seasons is the sheer joy he derives from lighting the lamp. Ovechkin’s tally off the rush with 7.2 seconds left in the second period meant just as much to him as his first or his 200th or his 717th — and it meant even more to Washington.
“You kind of run out of words to say about him,” Strome said. “I was talking to Chuckie earlier in the season, and I think [Ovechkin] had, like, seven or eight goals at the time. We were just talking, and we were like, ‘I’m not going to be surprised when he gets 30 this year,’ and I’ve only been here for one year before this. He finds a way to score. He has a great shot. … When he sees a spot in the net, he’s going to put it home. Nice milestone, and we obviously need the goal, so it helps a lot.”
The Capitals had to hang on in the third period, but it wasn’t quite the same level of deluge that the Red Wings poured on in the opening frame. They killed two penalties, a bench minor for too many men and a hooking call on Oshie, and did enough on the offensive end of the ice to avoid being pinned in the defensive zone without relief.
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Kane finally broke through with a second left — far too late to change the outcome but just enough to end Lindgren’s quest for his sixth shutout of the season.
The Capitals will need more heroics from Strome, Lindgren and Ovechkin down the stretch to make a playoff appearance happen, but they have a chance to keep playing beyond the end of the regular season.
“It’s a big win,” Strome said. “Got to keep it going. It means nothing if we lose the next couple.”
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