Red Wings collapse in third period, suffer 4-1 setback against Capitals

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on Mar 18, 2025

Published in Hockey

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WASHINGTON — The Detroit Red Wings need points in these final games of the regular season. They can't afford letting games slip away without earning anything in the points column.

But Tuesday, playing against the Eastern Conference's best team, the Wings will return home with no points losing 4-1 to the rampaging Washington Capitals.

Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson scored Washington goals midway in the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie, then Connor McMichael added insurance as the Capitals — similar to 11 days ago here in Washington — the third period was not kind to the Wings.

It was a brisk, unusual type of game as there were no penalties called the entire evening.

Dubois broke a 1-1 tie at 8 minutes, 16 seconds of the third period. Dubois fluttered a shot that appeared to nick the shot of Justin Holl and got under goaltender Petr Mrazek's arm for Dubois' 18th goal.

Wilson extended the lead to 3-1 with his 30th goal, skating unaccounted for into the slot and tapping a loose puck past Mrazek at 14:21.

The Wings (32-30-6) missed an opportunity to move closer to the Eastern Conference wild-card race. The Wings only have 14 games left in the regular season with nine of those away from Little Caesars Arena.

Dylan Larkin tied the game 1-1 midway in the first period. Ben Chiarot made a move near the top circle and fed a driving Lucas Raymond who batted a puck toward net. Goalie Logan Thompson left a juicy rebound that Larkin raced to and snapped a shot past Thompson, Larkin's 28th goal, at 12:28.

"Every game is going to be a big game," coach Todd McLellan said after the morning skate. "We played a big game (Tuesday) and we'll get ready for another one. These are games where players should just crave to be participating in them, excited about performing at the best level they can. It's not going to be always 100 percent.

"We have some momentum coming out of the Vegas game (Sunday's 3-0 victory). We have some opportunity to reflect back on our last Washington game here and some of the things we did well and some of the things we definitely need to improve on."

Dylan Strome had the Capitals' first goal.

Players have talked about the excitement of these games in the season's final weeks, with a playoff spot on the line. Last season's race to the finish was similar, and this season is beginning to take the same shape.

"It's the most fun time of the year other than playoffs," said Alex DeBrincat, who played in his 600th NHL game. "I'd say this is basically playoffs for us. We need to win every game. You feel the energy around the room. Everyone is ready to play."

After Tuesday's morning skate McLellan talked about the difference for a team still in the playoff chase, compared to a team that is outside the playoff chase. The intensity of the games are different. A hockey player, said McLellan, wants to be in these types of situations.

"We still have that opportunity right now and we plan on pushing that as far as we possibly can," McLellan said. "Our pain threshold (being eliminated) we hope comes way down the road. But we're in it right now, and let's face it, that's the why players play. They want these moments.

"We're right in it with everybody else and excited about playing games.

"For some of these players starting with Larks all the way down, this is their team right now and playing under pressure, which is nothing wrong with at all. I'm talking about Razor (Lucas Raymond) and everybody else on the team and that's a real good thing. We can embrace that pressure and play real well and don't worry about mistakes."

The Wings kept Washington star Alex Ovechkin off the goal-scoring column, keeping Ovechkin eight goals away (887) from passing Wayne Gretzky (894) for most goals in NHL history.

Ovechkin had eight goals in his past 11 games heading into Tuesday's game.

“Hope he’s not going to break it (tonight). That would be ugly,” McLellan joked after the morning skate, adding he never thought Gretzky's record would ever be broken. "No, I didn't think it would be broken. I just didn't. It's going to be broken. I really believe that now, but the next question is will Ovechkin’s record ever be broken?

"You know where (Ovechkin) is. Teams have just went and stood right beside him and he's still good enough to get in the opening, good enough to fire pucks through people. He's powerful enough to do that. But their team and their power play evolution has also allowed him to roam around a little bit. He's not always just in that spot. When somebody takes him away he and (defenseman John) Carlson are prepared to rotate and move around."

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