The Washington Capitals closed their two-game home stand on
Sunday night with a surprisingly low-scoring 2-1 Gimmick win over the Edmonton
Oilers. It was a game that featured
little scoring on both sides, but it was one that the Caps can be thankful for
winning, for it was the Oilers driving play for much of the last half of the
game.
First Period
The Caps had the benefit of two power plays in the first ten
minutes but did nothing with either of them.
Despite the four minutes with a man advantage, the Caps took a 7-5
advantage in shots on goal to the first intermission, while the teams were tied
in shot attempts at 13 apiece. There
were a couple of coincidental penalty instances late in the period involving
the same players. Tom Wilson and Patrick
Maroon went off on coincidental roughing minors with 2:06 left in the period,
and immediately upon exiting the penalty box at the end of their respective
sentences, upped the ante and took coincidental fighting majors at the end of
the period.
Second Period
What the second period lacked in scoring, and it was
completely lacking in scoring, was made up for by the stellar play of Braden
Holtby in goal for the Caps, especially late in the period. He stopped all 13 shots he faced, seven of
them in a 2:23 span as the period was winding down. The Oilers out-shot the Caps, 13-7, for the
period and out-attempted them, 25-12.
Third Period
Edmonton broke the ice 1:32 into the period when Jujhar
Khaira dug a puck loose at the top of the crease and slipped it under the pad
of Holtby.
Dmitry Orlov evened things up less than four minutes later
when we worked a give-and-go with Tom Wilson, taking Wilson’s slick backhand
feed from the left wing wall, stepping up, and snapping a shot over the glove
of goalie Laurent Brossoit.
That would do it for the scoring though, Edmonton dominating
the shots (29-19) and shot attempts (58-33) in regulation.
Extra Time
The five-minute overtime was entertaining, if you like games
of keep-away, the Oilers recording the only shot on goal, pushing the contest
to the trick-shot competition. In the
freestyle phase, T.J. Oshie got the only goal, that in the first round, and
Holtby shut the door on three attempts by the Oilers at the other end to seal
the 2-1 win.
Other stuff…
-- Interesting stat… no Edmonton forward averaged as much as
50 seconds a shift in the first period.
Six Caps forwards averaged at least 50 seconds per shift: Alex Ovechkin
(0:57), Jakub Vrana (1:00), Nicklas Backstrom (0:53), Lars Eller (0:50), T.J.
Oshie (0:52), and Evgeny Kuznetsov (0:51).
Chalk that up to power plays for the most part.
-- Alex Ovechkin did not have a shot on goal in the hockey
portion of the contest (eight attempts – six blocked, two misses).
-- This was the Caps’ first trick shot competition since
Opening Night, when they defeated the Ottawa Senators, 5-4.
-- Jay Beagle had an uncharacteristically off night in the
circle, winning just five of 15 draws (33.3 percent).
-- Braden Holtby stopped 29 of 30 shots and lifted his
record over his last six appearances to 6-0-0, 1.79, .944.
-- Five Capitals did not have a shot attempt in this game:
Nicklas Backstrom, Taylor Chorney, Brett Connolly, Chandler Stephenson, and Jay
Beagle.
-- As many Capitals were credited with hits (13) as with
shot attempts (13). T.J. Oshie led the
club with five credited hits.
-- John Carlson continues to pile up minutes. He led the club with 29:03 in total ice
time. He had more even strength ice time
(26:44) than any Capital had in total.
-- Brooks Orpik gets the coarse-grit sandpaper award for
this one…four hits, four blocked shots.
-- The Caps are now just a tie-breaker behind Columbus for
second in the Metropolitan Division and three points behind the New Jersey
Devils for the top spot.
In the end…
To say, “it wasn’t pretty,” does not do this game
justice. With some of the most prolific
offensive talent in the league, these two teams managed just one goal apiece
and just one shot between them in overtime (that by Edmonton). But standings points are not awarded on the basis
of style, and two ugly points spend as well as two handsome ones. If the Caps go into the last game of the
season clinging to the last playoff spot by a thread instead of on the outside
needing help to get into the postseason, fans might look back on this game as
beautifully ugly.
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