As the Capitals pressed hard for the tying goal late in the third period Tuesday against the Wild, goalie Filip Gustavsson made an improbable, spectacular save by kicking he puck with his skate blade to keep it out of the net.
When asked about it after the game — a 4-2 Wild victory made more comfortable with a late empty-net goal — Gustavsson smiled and said the maneuver was intentional.
"You need to stop it somehow," Gustavsson said. "You just try and figure out how to move that part of your body and lift it a little bit."
As remarkable as the save was, and befitting as it was of a goalie who is seeing the puck very well during a 10-2 stretch in his last 12 starts, what has really defined Gustavsson's excellence of late is his steadiness above any spectacular individual efforts.
He has a 1.67 goals against average and .940 save percentage in those 12 starts, earning more of an even playing time split with Marc-Andre Fleury than was employed at the start of the season.
A look inside the numbers gives us a glimpse into how Gustavsson has been doing it.
Per Natural Stat Trick, since Nov. 19 — spanning the last 12 Gustavsson starts — Gustavsson has allowed just seven combined goals on what the site defines as "medium danger" and "low danger" scoring chances.
Particularly impressive is his .959 save percentage on medium danger shots (93 saves on 97 chances) during that span.