WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the drama-loving world of the hockey gods, of course Marc-Andre Fleury would need to stop Alex Ovechkin in a shootout to get what is likely his final win in the Washington Capitals home rink.
Ovechkin continued his relentless assault on the NHL record book on Thursday, beating Fleury in the second period for career goal 871. But the Minnesota goalie had the last laugh, thwarting Ovechkin’s shootout try as Minnesota rallied for a 4-3 win.
While they are just barely above .500 at home this season, the win over the Capitals improved the Wild to 14-3-3 in road games, with four wins in their past five outings.
Trailing by a goal in the latter half of the third period, the Wild drew even on Marco Rossi’s 15th goal of the season, then held the Capitals to just one shot in the 3-on-3 overtime.
First period goals by Ryan Hartman and Yakov Trenin, combined with 28 saves from goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, helped the Wild open 2025 on a high note. Fleury stopped all three Washington shooters in the shootout, including Ovechkin to clinch the win, but he had skated to the bench with cramps just seconds earlier.
“How about that? Two Hall of Famers right there. That’s great, huh?” Wild coach John Hynes said. “And then Flower came to the bench cramping and I was like, I didn’t know what was going on and then he pops back out and makes the save. Vintage Flower there.”
Hartman set up Rossi’s tying goal in the third, and scored in the first, as the Wild — playing without captain Jared Spurgeon, star forward Kirill Kaprizov and mainstay defenseman Jake Middleton — came away with two points on the road versus one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
“Seems like it’s kind of been like that all year. We’ve had some injuries throughout the year. I don’t know if we’ve been fully, fully healthy since game one until maybe game five. I got hurt game five, actually,” Hartman said. “It happens. Every team goes through that. There’s injury spells. You hope it’s not towards the end of the year. Hopefully in our case, we’re getting it out of the way now and we’ll hopefully keep plugging away wins and keep ourselves at the top of the leader board.”
A collision between Jonas Brodin and Rossi left Tom Wilson alone in front of the Wild next, giving the Capitals winger time to knock down a shot from the blue line and swat it past Fleury for an early Washington lead.
But Minnesota needed just 65 seconds to provide an answer, when Hartman deflected a Zach Bogosian shot past Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren for a 1-1 tie. For Hartman, it was his first goal since a Nov. 19 game in St. Louis, snapping a string of 20 games in which he had been held without a goal. Lindgren, a native of Lakeville, Minn., finished the game with 30 saves.
Minnesota was whistled for the first penalty of the game with less than two minutes remaining in the first, but managed to take the lead on a classic hustle play by Trenin. When Lindgren went to play a dump-in behind the net, Trenin took the puck away and knocked the goalie’s stick away, wrapping the puck around the scrambling goalie for the Wild’s third short-handed goal of the season.
“At first I saw he doesn’t have help from other guys, and in worst case scenario, he could rim and just start a breakout. So it was kind of easy play for me to go through him,” Trenin said. “After that, I saw he lost the stick and puck was right there, and I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t grab it and score (and I worried) there was interference. And then I grab the puck, I see there’s no whistle and make play and into the net.”
With the Capitals on a four-minute power play, Ovechkin zipped a long-range shot past Fleury. It was the 28th time he had scored versus Fleury in the regular season, dating back to their days when the Minnesota goalie played for Caps’ rival Pittsburgh several times per season. They also met head-to-head in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, when the Capitals defeated Fleury’s Vegas Golden Knights for Washington’s first and so far only NHL title. After another save, the veterans shared a laugh.
“It’s 20 years we play against each other. It’s always fun. It’s always a challenge. He’s one of the best goalies out there and it’s a huge challenge for me to play against him,” Ovechkin said, admitted that they shared a laugh after one of Fleury’s saves. “I told him, ‘I need one more.’ He said, ‘You already get one.’”
Fleury said he won’t gloat about stopping Ovechkin to clinch the game, knowing that the Capitals come to Minnesota for a regular season game in March.
“Well, we still got one more game, so I don’t want to get too cocky too early,” Fleury said. “He got a goal in the game already, so that was enough.”
The Wild road swing continues on Saturday as they pay their only visit to the Carolina Hurricanes this season. Their next home game is Jan. 7 vs. St. Louis.
Leave a Reply