It did not take long for things to get started in this
one. Alex Ovechkin scored his 42nd
goal of the season in the fourth minute of the game when he set up in the slot
and deflected a drive from the left point by Brooks Orpik past goalie Sergei
Bobrovsky.
Eric Fehr doubled the Caps’ lead late in the first period,
taking advantage of a loose puck off a shot from Tim Gleason. Standing to the right of Bobrovsky, Fehr was
left unattended, and before Scott Hartnell could close the distance to tie him
up, Fehr snapped the puck past Bobrovsky from the edge of the blue paint of the
crease.
That would do it for scoring in the first period, but
Columbus halved the lead early in the second on a slap shot from the top of the
right wing circle. The one-goal margin
lasted less than a minute. Columbus was
caught with too many men deep in the Caps’ zone, and when the puck squirted out
to the top of the zone, Jason Chimera and Tom Wilson were off on a two-on-one
break. Chimera’s tried to deke Bobrovsky
to the ice and curl the puck around him, but Bobrovsky made the initial
save. Trailing the play, Wilson popped
the rebound into the back of the net, and the Caps were up 3-1.
Scott Hartnell scored for Columbus at the 15:03 mark on a redirect
from the high slot of a Jack Johnson shot from the left point to make it 3-2
heading into the second intermission.
Ovechkin got his second of the game in the fourth minute of the third
period on a power play when he one-timed a shot from the left circle that seemed
to handcuff Bobrovsky.
Hartnell returned the favor on a Blue Jacket power play six
minutes later, and that is as close as Columbus would get. Marcus Johansson scored an empty net goal as
he emerged from the penalty box after a Blue Jacket power play in the last
minute, and the Caps had their 5-3 win.
Other stuff…
-- With two points apiece, Alex Ovechkin (two goals) and
Nicklas Backstrom (two assists) took over the league lead in scoring with 67
points apiece.
-- Jason Chimera added a pair of assists for the Caps, his
second multi-point game in his last four contests.
-- The Caps and Blue Jackets had four fights in this
game. That makes seven for the season
between the two clubs, one fourth of the Caps’ total for the season (28).
-- Ovechkin’s second goal was the game winner, giving him
game-winning goals in consecutive games and three game-winners in the Caps’
last four wins.
-- Tim Gleason and Michael Latta were the only Caps not to
record shots on goal, and Latta skated only 3:38, departing early in the second
period with an injury.
-- Curtis Glencross had an uneventful debut for the
Caps. He had two shots on goal (no
points), three hits (led the team), and two blocked shots, but he was on ice for
Columbus’ first two goals.
-- Each team had 40 minutes in penalties for the game, but
there were only four power plays, two for each team, each team converting once.
-- Tom Wilson’s 17 penalty minutes was a season high, and he
is now third in the league in PIMs (145), trailing only Steve Downie (191) and
Cody MacLeod (167).
-- Tim Gleason’s assist on Eric Fehr’s goal was his first
point as a Capital and broke a personal 15-game streak without a point,
including 14 in a row with Carolina.
-- This was Washington’s 17th road win of the
season, matching their total for all of last year.
In the end…
It was a rough and tumble game, but it was a good win for the
Caps. It enabled the Caps to close to
within a point of Pittsburgh for third place in the Metropolitan Division and
to within a point of the Detroit Red Wings for fifth place in the
conference. The nine goals scored over
the last two games is the most over consecutive games in two months (ten in
wins over Florida and Toronto on January 4th and 7th). It sets the Caps up well for the remainder of
the week, games against Minnesota and Buffalo that are certainly in the
winnable category. On this night,
though, the Caps did what they had to do – deal with a struggling opponent
effectively and move on to the next opponent.
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