Rookie goaltender Zack Fucale became the first player in club history to record a shut out in his NHL debut as the Washington Capitals defeated the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena 2-0.
Fucale stopped all 21 shots he faced as the Capitals improved to 7-2-4 and moved into second place in the Metropolitan Division, two points behind Carolina.
“I can’t dream it better to be honest,” Fucale said after the game. “This is a really great moment. At the end of the day, it’s a really great win, and it’s been a hell of a journey. We move on and go to the next game, and that’s the reality of it. It was a fun night a really fun night,” he said.
Washington got all its scoring in a 30 second stretch of the first period. Dmitry Orlov scored off an assist from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin at the 12:53 mark of the opening period. On the ensuing faceoff, Nick Jensen forced a turnover and found Lars Eller streaking towards the goal. Eller beat Thomas Greiss to make the score 2-0. From there, Washington played defense, limiting Detroit to just 10 shots over the final two periods after allowing 11 in the first.
“I think we needed a little shakeup after the first 8 minutes,” defenseman John Carlson said of the start. “You don’t want to give teams life. The rest of the game, I just felt like it was a lot more controlled, and when they did get looks, they didn’t have time with the looks like they did the first little while,” he said.
Once again, Washington got critical minutes from its rookie players. In addition to Fucale, Connor McMichael logged almost twelve minutes of ice time, narrowly missing two goals. Winger Axel Jonsson-Fjallby was on the ice for nearly 13 minutes.
“It was a really good team win,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “Knowing that we were playing tomorrow, we had the lead, and you wanted to utilize the bench. We had a lot of kids in the lineup. They had to go out and do the job, and I thought they were excellent. I thought they played a really good game.”
Fucale admitted to having to get over some nerves at the start of the game. His family and close friends were in attendance. As the game wore on, he said he settled in.
“For sure, there were some nerves, but to be honest with you, it was less than I thought, he said.” “After that was done, I settled in and played a little system and felt solid.”
“You are always rooting for guys in the first game,” Carlson said. “It’s just so special it’s the culmination of so much hard work for him just sticking to it and making his debut.”
The Capitals play the Blue Jackets in Columbus Friday night before returning home Monday for a game with Pittsburgh.