It might not have been the most thrilling of contests, but a
win is thrilling enough these days for the Washington Capitals, who defeated
the Carolina Hurricanes last night, 2-1. The win ended a two-game losing streak
for the Caps and brought Washington’s divisional record to 5-1-1, an important
item to note since this game opened a stretch in which the Caps will play eight
divisional rivals over a 12-game span.
The game started fast enough when the Caps scored in the
third minute. The scoring play started when Michal Jordan failed to secure a
harmless looking pass from Ron Hainsey at the top of the offensive zone. With
the puck lying loose outside the reach of Jordan’s stick, Jason Chimera jumped
up and forced the puck out into the neutral zone. Chimera beat Jordan to the
loose biscuit and headed off on a semi-breakaway. His shot was stopped by goalie
Anton Khudobin, but the rebound was left in the slot. Jay Beagle was all alone
coming down the middle and beat Khudobin to the puck, one-handing it past the
diving goalie and into the net to give the Caps a 1-0 lead with just 2:19 gone.
That is how the game remained for the next 41 minutes. In
the fourth minute of the third period, Alexander Semin took a cross-ice feed
from Jay Harrison, cut through the slot against the grain of the play and
lifted a backhand over goalie Braden Holtby's shouler and under the crossbar to
tie the game 3:19 into the third period.
As the clock was winding down to the four-minutes left to
play mark, Eric Fehr broke the tie. The
scoring play started when Fehr poked the puck off Riley Nash’s stick just
inside the Carolina blue line. After gathering
up the biscuit, Fehr skated in, faked once to his left, then snapped a forehand
over Khudobin’s left pad for what would be the game winning goal in the 2-1
decision.
Other stuff…
-- It took long enough.
The 2-1 win in regulation was the first time since March 11, 2012 that
the Caps won a decision in regulation time when scoring two or fewer
goals. It broke a string of 51 52 straight
losses (regulation decisions only) when scoring two or fewer goals.
-- Nicklas Backstrom’s points streak came to an end at six
games.
-- The Capitals turned the tables on the Hurricanes in one
important respect. Carolina came into
the game having faced the fewest shorthanded situations at home in the
league. The Caps had only two power
plays, coming up empty on both of them.
On the other side, the Caps faced no shorthanded situations, a godsend
for a club struggling on the penalty kill.
It was the second time this season that the Caps did not face a
shorthanded situation, the other coming in the Caps’ 3-2 win in Colorado on
November 20th.
-- About that power play, though. The Caps, with only two man advantages in
this game, have not had more than three power plays in nine straight
games. They are 5-for-15 (33.3 percent) in that span,
but having allowed eight power play goals in that span, the efficiency of the
power play has been more than offset.
-- Fehr’s game-winning goal broke a six-game string without
a goal. Coincidentally, his last goal
was also a game-winner in a 2-1 overtime win over Arizona on November 18th.
-- With the game in the balance in the seventh minute of the
third period, Braden Holtby’s right-pad save on a shot by Elias Lindholm from
the inside edge of the left wing faceoff circle might have been the most
important play of the game for the Caps.
-- Every Capital had a shot on goal in this game except
Brooks Orpik and Nate Schmidt. Orpik had
four attempts blocked, while Schmidt had three of his blocked.
-- Orpik returned the favor.
His seven blocked shots led all players on both teams. Karl Alzner had five more for the Caps.
-- Holtby shook off a couple of off outings to stop 29 of 30
shots. In his last 11 appearances he is
6-4-1, 2.22, .926.
-- Alex Ovechkin skated 14:27 in even strength ice time in
this one. That was less than Eric Fehr
(15:39), Nicklas Backstrom (16:58), Brooks Laich (16:45), Joel Wasrd (15:08),
and Jay Beagle (15:05) among the forwards.
In the end…
Gritty win, nice win.
Now…let’s see them put a streak together. This has been the problem for the Caps,
stringing solid performances together.
This was a solid performance.
There was not much flow, and a lot of the game seemed to be spent in the
neutral zone. But the Caps played a
smart road game, counter punching and capitalizing on opportunities – two turnovers
produced the two goals. It is likely to be
the same sort of game they will have to play on Saturday when the road trip
continues in New Jersey against the Devils.
But, you can have two in a row unless you have one, and this was a
pretty good, if not a pretty one to have.
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