Lindgren, Capitals put dent in Wings' playoff hopes with 2-1 win at LCA

Detroit — Making the playoffs for the Red Wings has just become a little more difficult.

Maybe a lot. We'll see in the next several days, but Tuesday's 2-1 loss to Washington certainly isn't going to help matters.

Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 42 saves spurring the victory, as the Wings outshot the Capitals, 43-23, but were continually frustrated by Lindgren.

Patrick Kane scored with 1.1 seconds left, his 20th goal during a goalmouth scramble, to prevent the Wings' shutout.

"Just trying to process it all," said captain Dylan Larkin after the hard-fought loss. "A lot of emotions. Frustrated. We just didn't put the puck in the net. Very frustrated.

"We had chances. A lot of chances, a lot of shots. We had chances they gave us, too. We just didn't execute and that's twice Lindgren has had our number and we just didn't score."

BOX SCORE: Capitals 2, Red Wings 1

Dylan Strome (27th goal, 17 minutes 47 seconds) and Alex Ovechkin (30th, 19:52) scored late in the second period, breaking open the game.

Both goals against were the result of Wings' turnovers that contributed to the deficit, and ultimately, the loss.

"It was turnovers that led to getting them those chances and scoring," coach Derek Lalonde said. "It just didn't go our way. I liked our game. This one stings because we played a pretty good game and we just got away from our puck play at the end of the second period. We couldn't have been any better for the first 35 minutes.

"We had some turnovers and that's their MO, they get saves by an outstanding goaltender and they take advantage of opportunities if you give it to them."Unfortunately in the second we gave them some opportunities."

With the victory, Washington moved into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 85 points. The Capitals moved past both the Wings and idle Pittsburgh, who both have 84 points. All three teams have four games remaining.

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The Wings are in Pittsburgh Thursday, and visit streaking Toronto on Saturday. There's no time to mope for the Wings with less than a week left in the regular season and the playoffs in jeopardy.

"We have to reset and just let go of the game and move forward, re-energize for the next one," forward David Perron said. "If we have to run the table, whatever we have to do to get in (to the playoffs), we have to find a way."

This loss hurts more because of when it occurred in the season, and maybe costing the Wings a potential playoff spot.

"If this is a game in the first half of the season, we're talking about our process being excellent and the stick with it," Lalonde said. "It just gets magnified now because of the situation. This stings but we still have some games left and if we take care of business, I still think we're in this thing.

"It'll just be a little harder."

The Wings couldn't solve Lindgren early, and the goaltender seemed to get stronger as the game progressed. The Wings had quality chances throughout, but Lindgren turned aside everything.

"It feels like we could have gotten more traffic around him, maybe take some space away around him," Lalonde said. "We didn't have a ton of offensive zone time, where we had pucks at the point, get the pucks there. I'm sure when I watch it back we could have done more to be harder on their goalie but you probably have to tip your cap to him.

"He was outstanding."

The Capitals were the first to get on the scoreboard in a game that felt early would benefit the team that opened the scoring.

Strome opened the scoring after a long, controlling shift by the Capitals. Washington barely missed on a scoring chances earlier in the shift, the puck going just wide of goaltender Alex Lyon's net on a scramble in front. But Strome eventually got the puck near the dot and whistled a shot past Lyon for his 27th goal at 17:47 of the second period.

Ovechkin then gave the Capitals some cushion. Ovechkin got free on the wing after a fumbled pass from Perron to Moritz Seider, got to the dot, and sniped Lyon short-side, Ovechkin's 30th goal (the first NHL player in history to record 18 30-goal seasons) with just 7.2 seconds left in the period.

"Not the greatest pass by me, I have to put it on his stick," Perron said. "That's a play we do a lot of times. Unfortunately I didn't make the right play on his stick. Sometimes it happens and he handles it, but this time he didn't and they went back the other way and Ovechkin scored.

"Not a great play by me."

The Wings lost forward Andrew Copp to a broken cheekbone, said Lalonde, in the third period. There was no penalty called on the play, Copp getting struck by an errant Capitals stick.

"In hindsight now because he has a broken cheekbone, it stings even more," Lalonde said. "They (referees) didn't see it. What can you do? They never looked at it, they didn't see it. There's no blood. It's my understanding if an injury is caused for the whistle they can take a look at it, obviously it was a blatant high stick.

"You feel for Copper. I don't know what the situation is going forward but it's a big loss for us."

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

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