Zach Fucale and the Washington Capitals shutout Red Wings

What a night for Zach Fucale! He made his NHL debut in the Washington Capitals game last night against the Detroit Red Wings and he was simply impressive, stopping shot after shot and surviving some early tests. But this came as no surprise.

Fucale was good with the Hershey Bears and several other minor league hockey teams and he finally earned his chance to play with the big boys. The Caps provided him with two goals and left the rest to him. Fucale stopped all 21 shots he faced. 20 of those came at even strength while he only faced on shot on the four Red Wings power play opportunities.

Most of Fucale’s work came in the first period when he stopped 11 shots. From there he stopped just four in the second and six in the third. The Caps two goals came 10 seconds apart in the opening period. He is the first goaltender in Capitals history to record a shutout in his NHL debut.

First it was Dmitry Orlov with a long bomb at 12:43 that was assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin. 10 seconds later Lars Eller made a sweet deke move after getting a pass from Nick Jensen and beat netminder Thomas Greiss.

When Fucale spoke with “Smokin” Al Kokin after the game, he was beaming with excitement. The kid had just completed a long journey to get to this point and he was very humble. He credited his teammates and just soaked it all in. This is what sports is all about.

"“This is one of the greatest moments so far in my hockey career. …What a great defensive game everyone played today. I’m a little bit speechless, guys, I’m sorry. This is happening pretty quickly right now. It’s wild.”"

Fucale’s family made the trip to Detroit. As the final horn sounded you could see his parents hugging and his dad pumping his fist. Fucale credited his parent’s support through all the adversity he had to overcome:

"“My parents stuck w/ me through the great times but also there were also some real tough times. There’s so many people that have helped me to get here. There’s a lot of people that didn’t believe in me, that helped fuel me. This is a great moment.”"

The Caps will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight in the second game of their road back to back. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.