The Washington Capitals cobbled together an Andre Burakovsky
goal, a pair of scores in the shootout, and a 27-save effort from Braden Holtby
to end the Anaheim Ducks’ winning streak at 11 games last night in a 2-1 win to
kick off the California segment of their four-game road trip.
The Caps found themselves in a hole early when Ryan Getzlaf
scored just one minute into the contest. On a delayed penalty to be called on
Alex Ovechkin, Getzlaf skated with the puck in the left wing facoff circle and
fired a slap-pass to David Perron at the goal line to the right of Holtby.
Perron returned the puck to Getzlaf, who fired a long range shot through a
screen and past Holtby to open the scoring.
That would be all the scoring for the next 39 minutes of
game time. Then, in the first minute of the third period, Andre Burakovsky
picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated down the middle toward
the Ducks’ end. As he reached the blue line he slid the puck off to his left to
Evgeny Kuznetsov. From the left wing circle, Kuznetsov had two options. He
could have passes to Justin Williams heading to the net, but Williams was
covered by Simon Despres. Kuznetsov chose Burakovsky filling in behind
Williams, and Burakovsky one-timed the puck past goalie John Gibson to tie the
game 41 seconds into the period.
That would be all for the scoring in the hockey portion of
the game, leaving the matter of the second standings point to the freestyle
competition. T.J. Oshie scored in the first round, and Corey Perry tied it for
the Ducks in the third round. Then, Nicklas Backstrom won it in the bottom of
the third round when he skated slowly in, got Gibson leaning to his right, then
shot across his body and past Gibson’s glove for the game-winner and a good
start in the Golden State.
Other stuff…
-- That makes 11 one-goal decisions in a row for the Caps,
over which they are 8-3-0.
-- For the first time since January 14th in a 4-1 win over
Vancouver, Braden Holtby allowed fewer than two goals in a game. Over 18
appearances until last night, he was 12-4-1 (on no-decision), 2.96, .899.
--The teams combined for a credited 76 hits. The Caps had
33, led by Mike Weber with eight. Weber
also had five blocked shots, tied for the team lead with (who else) Karl
Alzner, thus earning Weber the Ben-Gay “Ooh, that’s gonna leave a mark” award
for the game.
-- Andre Burakovsky broke a six-game streak without a goal
when he scored early in the third period. It would be a good thing if this was
a signal he was breaking out of a bit of a slump. He has two goals in his last 11 games.
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov’s assist on Burakovsky’s goal allowed
him to avoid a third consecutive game without a point. He has not gone three games without a point
since December 14-18.
-- Justin Williams had five shots on goal, tying a season
high for him. He has hit that mark in six
games.
-- Some nights, you get the bear, other nights the bear…whatever. Alex Ovechkin… minor for slashing, a delayed
penalty for tripping that led to the Anaheim goal, minus-1, no points on five
shots on goal, only one shot on goal at even strength…he’s had better days.
-- The Caps held Anaheim to one shot on goal on four power
plays covering 6:16 in power play ice time.
Not bad.
-- The Caps had seven shots on goal on four power plays
covering 6:16 in power play ice time. Not
“bad”…but not good, either. Ovechkin had
four of those shots on goal.
-- Shot attempts at 5-on-5 were an issue, but in a different
way for the Caps than has been the case in recent games. They had 12 shot attempts in the first period
to nine for the Ducks. In the second
period, the Ducks roared back with a 20-12 edge, then almost duplicated that
edge in the third period, 20-13. The
teams split 40 scoring chances down the middle, though, and the Caps had the
advantage in high-danger scoring chances, 12-5 (numbers from war-on-ice.com).
In the end…
John Gibson deserved the game’s number one star for his
effort in goal for Anaheim. He had the
harder time of it, making several top-notch saves to keep the Ducks in front as
long as they were, and keeping them tied so they could earn a standings
point. In the Caps’ favor, they played a
solid road game to win their sixth straight game in Anaheim. Washington has not lost in Orange County
since dropping a 3-0 decision in December 2002.
The terrain gets less hospitable for the Caps as they head
into Los Angeles to meet the Kings, where they have dropped five straight
games, winning there most recently in December 2005. The Caps will have to do a better job of
finishing what chances they will get against the Kings. They are not likely to see many against the
league’s top possession team. Still,
this was the sort of start to the California trip Caps fans like to see.
