By Tyler Barnes –
The Red Wings fell to the Washington Capitals Tuesday night in a hard-fought contest that needed a shootout to decide a winner.
Detroit had a chance to end the game in overtime when Dylan Larkin drew a hooking penalty on Alex Ovechkin. The only man-advantage of the night for Detroit failed to tally the game winner, and the game headed to a shootout.
T.J. Oshie provided a flashback of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, as he and Evgeny Kuznetsov beat Howard fairly easily in their shot attempts. Gustav Nyquist and Pavel Datsyuk were unsuccessful in their shot attempts to give the Capitals the extra point.
Justin Williams started the scoring on the first shift of the game for Washington when the Wings made multiple miscues in their own zone turning the puck over. Kuznetsov took the puck to the net and Williams found a rebound to beat Jimmy Howard. Marcus Johansson drew the other assist.
Henrik Zetterberg broke a 14-game goal-less drought when he received a beautiful feed from Dylan Larkin off an offensive zone faceoff at 15:40 of the first period.
Tomas Jurco notched his first of the year 3:16 into the second period to give the Wings a 2-1 lead. Joakim Andersson made a nice play on the forecheck and fed Jurco out front, who made a silky move to his backhand and beat Braden Holtby.
Ovechkin finally got on the board against Detroit when he buried a loose puck at 10:51 of the third period. It was a power-play goal for the Capitals that tied the game at two. The goal was reviewed after Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill challenged it on the basis of goaltender interference, but it was ultimately deemed to be a good goal.
Howard was strong all night, stopping 38 of 40 Washington shots. He was tested often in the second period, stopping all 17 shots he faced.
The Red Wings were out shot 40-23 on the night.
There were plenty of milestones on the night, including Pavel Datsyuk’s 900th NHL game, Justin Williams’ 600th NHL point, and Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby played in their 600th and 200th NHL games, respectively.
The Red Wings return to Joe Louis Arena Thursday night to take on the Atlantic Division leader Montreal Canadiens.