WASHINGTON, DC — The Washington Capitals never trailed during their game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, but that wasn’t good enough to earn them the much-needed two points.
After two game-tying goals from Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy in regulation, the Capitals and Bruins went scoreless in overtime to force a shootout. Both teams had star goaltenders in net — Washington’s Logan Thompson and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman each represented their country at the Olympics last month — and the two lived up to their reputation in the skills contest.
A combined 17 skaters went without a goal before rookie Fraser Minten broke the stalemate, securing a Bruins victory.
“I just saw lots of guys try shots. Remembered seeing a couple videos of him maybe biting on a fake in the prescouts, so I just went in and tried to watch for that, and it ended up working out,” Minten said of the game-winner.
Here’s Ian Oland’s play-by-play of the shootout from RMNB’s live blog:
Tom Wilson told reporters postgame he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played in a nine-round shootout, while Thompson guessed he’d likely last faced one during his rookie season with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Clocking in at nine rounds, Saturday’s shootout was the Capitals’ longest since they fell to the Panthers after 20 rounds on December 16, 2014 — a game that still holds the NHL record for longest shootout. In that contest, however, the two teams combined for 11 total shootout goals, compared to the lengthy clean sheets of Thompson and Swayman.
Per NHL Stats, no shootout has gone more than eight rounds without a goal since January 18, 2022, when the Islanders and Flyers went goalless until New York’s Oliver Wahlstrom scored the game-winning goal in the ninth round of the shootout.
The normally-verbose Spencer Carbery had a simple answer when asked if it was hard to pick new shooters after so many rounds.
Washington has now gone 1-6 in the shootout this season, with its only win coming against the Detroit Red Wings on January 29. The team’s shooting percentage of 21.2 (7/33) ranks 14th in the NHL.