Caulfield had 10 family members drive 145 miles north, about 2 1/2 two hours, from his hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota, to attend his fourth NHL game.
“It was super special with the family here,” Caulfield said. “It was as close as we’re going to get and it was (good) to have a nice little lineup on the schedule to have a Friday night game. It was super special to have them in the stands. I don’t think my grandma’s been to a game in a while, and it was nice to have my parents and my wife’s family here as well, and my siblings. It was great to have that support. They have supported me for so many years.”
Washe extended it to 2-0 at 5:20 of the second period, finishing a 2-on-1 rush with Malott following Caulfield’s pass through the neutral zone.
Colangelo pushed it to 3-0 at 4:25 of the third period, knocking in Sennecke’s backhand pass that found him at the top of the crease on the rush.
“I feel like both teams, they were playing really good in the neutral zone, and it was a little bit of a little battle up and down, so not so many shots,” Dostal said. “It was kind of our game plan to be on top of them and having good sticks. I think the guys did a tremendous job defensively, and I’m just overall amazed.”
Connor’s sixth goal of the season cut it to 3-1 at 10:36. He beat Dostal to the blocker side on a breakaway after Mark Scheifele spun with a cross-ice pass.
“I thought we were playing very quick,” Connor said. “We knew they were a transition team and we had to just be aware of that. They had good speed and we gave up a couple chances there, and they ended up in the back of our net. Our power play could have been a lot better. We had a lot of chances there in the second to change momentum, and unfortunately we weren’t able to get one.”