Capitals Crushed by Chicago

The Washington Capitals managed just 14 shots on Day 141 in a 6-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. With the loss, Washington falls into a tie for seventh in the Wales Conference on 73 points.

Chicago stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the opening period and never looked back. Sundstrom started things off with a goal from Ygranes and Boguniecki at 8:05, and just 2:15 later Sykora's 38th of the season from Simpson and Jonsson made it 2-0. Simpson extended the lead to three goals with his eighth of the year from Gomez and Sykora at 13:32, and 14 seconds later it was 4-0 as Kolozvary scored an unassisted goal.

The Blackhawks kept it up in the second period, and Sklenar made it 5-0 with a goal from Rasmussen and Perreault at 4:18. The Capitals finally got on the board midway through the period on Greg Watson's 10th of the season from Andrew Ference and Michal Rozsival. Chicago didn't take kindly to the Washington goal, however, and Sykora made it 6-1 with a marker from Whitney and Jonsson at 13:01.

The Capitals continued to struggle in the final period, managing just two shots on goal over the 20 minutes. The Blackhawks, on the other hand, fired 13 shots on the Washington goal, but amazingly, it was the Caps that lit the lamp twice. Patrick Marleau got the first from Mikael Renberg and Zigmund Palffy at 10:38. Palffy finished the scoring from Marleau and Renberg at 13:10.

Manny Legace made only nine saves in the loss and fell to 24-25-8. Peter Skudra stopped 21 shots in relief. Dan Cloutier needed just 11 saves to earn the win and improve to 34-30-5.

The Capitals are off until Day 145 when the Ottawa Senators come to town.