The Washington Capitals got their California trip off to a
good start on Wednesday night, shrugging off a late game-tying goal by the San
Jose Sharks to grab a 5-4 overtime win.
It was secondary scoring deluxe for the Caps, who got goals
from Jay Beagle (twice!), Troy Brouwer, John Carlson, and the game-winner from
Joel Ward. Beagle got the Caps started late in the first period when he batted
home a rebound of a Brooks Orpik shot.
The Caps took that one-goal lead into the second period,
where is lasted all of 21 seconds, Brent Burns scoring on a power play to tie
the game. Just 22 seconds after that, the Sharks scored again on another Burns
tally.
Troy Brouwer got the Caps back into the game in the seventh
minute of the period when he tipped in a pass from Alex Ovechkin disguised as a
wrist shot from the left wing circle on a power play.
The back-and forth continued when Logan Couture gave the
Sharks a lead before the second intermission on a wrap-around goal that beat
goalie Braden Holtby before he could cover the post to his left.
The third period scoring was packed into a three-minute
stretch of the third period, Beagle opening the scoring with his second of the
game. Beagle was the recipient of good fortune as San Jose’s Mirco Mueller was
blocked by the linesman from closing in on Beagle as he broke into the Sharks’
zone. With Mueller blocked out of the play, Beagle had a clear path to the net,
where he cut across the low slot and backhanded the puck past goalie Antti
Niemi.
John Carlson gave the Caps the lead when he took a no-look
pass from Marcus Johansson, stepped up, and wristed the puck over Niemi’s glove
and inside the post to make it 4-3.
The lead lasted barely a minute, though. Joe Thornton tied
the game once more when he took a cross-ice pass from Joe Pavelski and flipped
the puck over Braden Holtby’s left shoulder and under the cross bar.
Tied it would remain in regulation. In overtime, the Caps
broke into the San Jose zone on a 3-on-2 rush. Ward started the play by
carrying the puck into the Sharks’ zone and leaving it for Jay Beagle in the
middle. Beagle seemed not to have full control of the puck, but still managed
to slide it over to Mike Green skating in on the left side. Green’s backhand
was stopped by Niemi, but Ward had inside position on Brent Burns at the top of
the crease, putting him in perfect position to sanp the puck past Niemi’s left
pad and into the back of the net for the 5-4 win.
Other stuff…
-- Jay Beagle… Three points (first three-point game of his
career), two goals (second time in his career), first star of the game, first
NHL star of the night. Nice night’s
work.
-- More Beagle… the two goals gave him nine on the season,
almost as many as he recorded in the previous three seasons combined (10), and
the three points put him at 17 points, a career high and equal to his previous
two seasons combined.
-- Defense: “The Good.”
John Carlson had a goal and an assist and was a plus-3. He is now tied for sixth in scoring (7-31-38)
among defensemen with Nashville’s Roman Josi and is tied for eighth in
plus-minus (plus-16).
-- Defense: “The Bad.”
Matt Niskanen had a tough night.
Three giveaways and a minus-2.
-- The Defense: “The Good.” Brooks Orpik had a pair of
assists, his first two assist game since he recorded a pair of helpers in the
Caps’ 6-2 win over New Jersey on October 16th.
He had six hits for a bit of normalcy in his stat sheet line.
-- The Defense: “The Weird.”
Back to Carlson. He was on ice
for six of the nine goals, four for the Caps, two for the Sharks.
-- Nicklas Backstrom just keeps rolling along. Two assists, his fifth multi-point game in
his last 12 contests over which he is 3-12-14 overall.
-- All of a sudden the Caps are avoiding the penalty
box. Holding San Jose to a single power
play was the second consecutive game and third in their last five in which they
held an opponent to a single man advantage.
Maybe it’s a good thing, too. San
Jose scored on its power play, making the Caps just six for nine killing
penalties over those five games (66.7 percent).
-- Andre Burakovsky had an odd night. In 9:52 of total ice time his score sheet is
completely blank save for one thing. He
was a plus-2. Thank you, Jay Beagle
(Burakovsky was on ice for both goals).
-- Burakovsky did not have a shot attempt for the game,
which is not all that surprising given he was getting fourth line minutes. But Evgeny Kuznetsov not recording a shot
attempt? That is a bit more odd, given
Kuznetsov gets second line minutes.
In the end…
It was an “old school” sort of game, if by “old” you mean
the days of Bruce Boudreau (pre-trap). Coaches
and old-old school types might cringe as some of the hijinks, but for fans it
was about as entertaining a game as it gets in the NHL. For the Caps family it had to be especially
satisfying, the win being their first in the hockey portion of a game
(regulation or overtime) in San Jose in more than 21 years (October 30, 1993). More important in the here and now, it was
the sort of game the sons can talk over with their dads on this trip and for
years to come. If they can do as well in
Los Angeles on Saturday, even better.
