Capitals forward Mike Knuble thought his night was finished.
After the overtime period ended scoreless, his team’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins was headed for a shootout. That’s about the time the 37-year-old veteran kicks back and relaxes after an evening of grinding away in front of the crease. If he wants, Knuble can just stare out into the stands or guess what moves his younger, shiftier teammates will try against the opposing goalie.
But a few minutes into the shootout Knuble got an unexpected tap on the shoulder from Caps coach Bruce Boudreau: “You’re up,” he yelled. So that’s how a player with four shootout attempts in his entire 13-year career found himself with the game on his stick.
Knuble drove hard at Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, but knew better than to dive into his limited bag of tricks. Knuble, of course, makes his living in front of the net. In these kinds of situations that toolbox is pretty empty. Just a simple head fake and a hard shot up top were enough to beat Fleury and secure Washington’s 4-3 win at Verizon Center on Wednesday night – its third over the Penguins in three tries this season.
“It was a first,” said Knuble, previously 0-for-4 in his career in the shootout. “But it’ll probably be a last, too.”
Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin each scored with their team down 2-0 in the shootout. Their effort plus goalie Jose Theodore’s two key saves set up Knuble’s winner.
“I didn’t know what he was before [in the shootout],” Boudreau said. “I just thought he was going to score.”
“So just a gut feeling?” a reporter asked. “And it’s a big gut,” Boudreau cracked.
All that was possible thanks to Theodore, who finished with 39 saves on 42 shots, including five in overtime. Pittsburgh led 2-1 in a back-and-forth game, fell behind 3-2 early in the third period and then celebrated a game-tying goal by center Jordan Staal with 3 minutes, 6 seconds remaining.
“You could see they had a little but of momentum when they got that third goal,” Theodore said. “We had it before and they took it back. But I felt really solid since the start of the game and I kept just trying to make the next save. And that’s what I did.”
Theodore is now 17-0-2 in games since Jan. 13. He has wins in seven straight starts and his 19 consecutive games without a regulation loss is a franchise record. No other NHL goalie has matched that in a decade. Theodore stopped all 17 shots he faced in the first period against Pittsburgh. That’s the most the Caps have allowed in an opening period at Verizon Center this season.
“There are three goals against and they had 42 shots,” Boudreau said. “That’s eerily similar to a playoff game that we would have played them last year where they would outshoot us…But [the Penguins] were a determined, gritty bunch tonight and that’s why they’re Stanley Cup champions.”
