The game started poorly for the Caps.
Christian Ehrhoff snapped a shot off the post and behind Caps goalie
Braden Holtby 3:01 into the game to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead. That is how things stayed for the rest of the
first period and a minute into the second frame. Then, Ville Leino put the Sabres up by a
pair when he stuffed in a rebound of a Tyler Ennis shot past Holtby at the 1:19
mark of the period.
At that point, things looked grim, but Alex Ovechkin stopped the
bleeding. And we don’t mean his stitched
up chin. With Ennis off for tripping and
the Caps on a power play, the Sabres did the unthinkable. Defenseman Mike Weber and forward Steve Ott
stood in place on the left side of the ice and watched Ovechkin circle around
the edge of the left wing circle with the puck.
Neither was in a position to defend when Ovechkin then ripped a wrist
shot over goalie Jhonas Enroth’s glove to get the Caps within a goal just 62
seconds after the Leino goal.
Leino restored the Sabres’ two-goal lead midway through the period when
he poked a loose puck lying behind Holtby the last 18 inches, and that was how
the second period ended, the Sabres on top by a 3-1 margin. The third period was something else
altogether. With John Carlson off for
the Caps for a delay of game penalty, Braden Holtby stopped a dump-in behind
his own net. He reversed the puck,
sending it back up the left wing wall where it eluded Andrej Sekera. It was enough to spring Troy Brouwer free
with Nicklas Backstrom on a 2-on-1 break, Jason Pominville back for the
Sabres. Brouwer held the puck as he
glided in, and as Pominville slid across, Brouwer snapped a shot to the short
side past Enroth’s blocker to get the Caps within a goal once more at 3-2 with
2:43 gone in the third period.
Despite dominating territory over the next 17 minutes, it looked as if
Enroth had every answer for the Caps’ efforts.
Then, with Holtby pulled for an extra attacker, Enroth’s luck ran out. The Caps set up as if it was a power play,
deploying in a 2-3-1 formation with the extra attacker, Joel Ward being the
extra forward down low and Mike Green at the top of the zone. It succeeded in keeping the puck in the
Sabres’ zone, the Caps feeding Green as the trigger man. The first time Green was set up, his shot
from the high point went wide. But the
rebound off the boards came to Nicklas Backstrom at the right wing wall. Backstrom fed Green again, and after a hitch
in his windup, Green made good. His slap
shot hit the post to Enroth’s right, rebounded back and off Enroth’s right
shoulder, then back into the net to tie the game with just 39.2 seconds left in
regulation.
That is how the 60-minute portion of the game ended, and after a
five-minute overtime in which each team recorded a pair of shots, the contest
went to the skills competition. Buffalo
chose to shoot first, and Jason Pominville rang his shot off the left post behind
Holtby. It was the last bit of room the
Caps needed. Matt Hendricks resurrected
his “paralyzer” move, beating Enroth to the blocker side. Then, after Tyler Ennis was stuffed on his
shot attempt, Alex Ovechkin skated out as the potential game-winning trick
shot. Ovechkin skated slowly in, and with Enroth looking as if he was expecting one more move, Ovechkin snapped a shot
through the five hole of a frozen in place Enroth to give the Caps the extra
standings point.
Other stuff…
-- The 38 shots on goal for the Caps was the most they recorded in a
game since they peppered Carolina for 40 on February 26th. Over their previous 15 games the Caps had
reached the 30-shot mark only once (33 in a 4-1 loss to Boston on March 16th). Conversely, the 23 shots allowed was only the
second time over the Caps’ last 17 games that they allowed fewer than 30 shots.
-- The win in extra time preserved a mark for the Caps. Only one team in the league has fewer losses
in extra time than the Caps, who have but one such loss. Pittsburgh has not yet lost in extra time.
-- The Caps had 66 shot attempts for the game. Alex Ovechkin had 17 of them (and we believe
the official scorer missed two other missed shots late in the third
period). His ten shots on goal was a
season high and was the most he had in a single game since recording ten shots
on goal in a 5-2 win over Tampa Bay on February 4, 2011.
-- The two point game for Mike Green (1-1-2) was his second of the
season and first since a two-point effort in a 3-2 overtime loss to New Jersey
on January 25th, the Caps only extra time loss this season.
-- It was a four-square night for Mike Ribeiro, or rather “four-cubed". Four shots on goal, four faceoff wins, four
faceoff losses. It seemed as if each of Ribeiro’s shots were excellent chances,
including what was the save of the game when Ribeiro pounced on a rebound to
the left of Enroth. With the goalie down, Ribeiro had an almost empty net
at which to shoot. Even though it was a
tough angle shot, Ribeiro had the advantage of having the puck on his forehand,
but Enroth managed to get his glove up from a prone position and snare Ribeiro’s
drive.
-- For the most part, Jack Hillen had a tough game. But he gritted out a second-highest among Cap
defensemen 25:19 of ice time, including 3:01 of ice time in the overtime.
-- Brooks Laich had a bit of difficulty in this one. In 19:33 of ice time he did not attempt a
shot on goal, won only three of ten draws, and looked to take a skate toe in
the leg when he threw a hip check.
-- Ovechkin’s power play goal
made it a league-leading 11th for him, and it was the sixth time in
the last seven games that the Caps recorded a power play goal. Ovechkin has four of them.
-- Consider these time on ice numbers:
27:16, 25:19, 24:55, 21:45, 13:44, 11:05. What two look out of place? Yeah, those are the ice time numbers for the
defense, and the last two are those of Steve Oleksy and Jeff Schultz.
-- Joel Ward…no shots, no shot attempts, no hits, no giveaways, no
takeaways, no blocked shots, no faceoffs taken.
But for a plus-1 (the Green game-tying goal), he had a clean score
sheet. Yeah, and Buffalo didn’t score
any goals with him on the ice, either. We'll call that a pretty good game.
In the end…
(image: SB*Nation)
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