First Period
The start to the game might have signaled a brewing disaster
for the Caps, when they turned the puck over at their own blue line to Ilya
Kovalchuk. Breaking in alone on goalie
Pheonix Copley, Kovalchuk tried to slip the puck through Copley’s pads, but Copley
foiled the chance less than two minutes into the contest.
The Caps got in a bit of trouble when John Carlson, whose
turnover led the the Kovalchuk break, was whistled for tripping in the eighth
minute. That set in motion a critical four
minutes in the period. The Caps killed
off the Kings’ power play, but not without some difficulty as the Kings buzzed
the Washington net and recorded three shots on goal. Less than a minute after the Caps killed the
power play, the Kings took a penalty, Derek Forbort going off for a tripping call
of his own. The Caps converted the
opportunity when John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin played catch with the puck at
the perimeter of the Los Angeles zone.
One more pass from Carlson to Ovechkin resulted in a one-timer that beat
goalie Jack Campbell 11:48 into the period.
On the next shift, the Caps doubled their lead. Andre Burakovsky circled off the right wing
wall and snapped a shot that Brett Connolly redirected past Campbell’s glove,
and just 20 seconds after the Ovechkin goal, it was 2-0. That would be how the teams went to the first
intermission.
-- The Kings had a 10-7 edge in shots on goal in the first
period and a 20-19 edge in total shot attempts.
-- Fourteen of 18 skaters for the Caps had at least one shot
attempt. Oddly enough, all four who didn’t
were forwards (Chandler Stephenson, Tom Wilson, Andre Burakovsky, and Travis
Boyd).
-- The Caps struggled in the faceoff circle, but at this
point it is hardly news. Los Angeles won
nine of 13 draws in the period 69.2 percent).
-- Michal Kempny was the only Capital with more than one
shot on goal in the period (two).
-- Matt Niskanen had three blocked shots, half of the team’s
total in the first period.
Second Period
Washington extended its lead early in the second period
after Jakub Vrana drew his second penalty of the game, this one sending Jeff
Carter to the box. On the ensuing power
play, John Carlson looked off the defense and laid out a pass to Ovechkin in
the left wing circle for a one-timer that whistled past Campbell before he
could set himself. The Caps were up,
3-0, 5:27 into the period. The Caps
shortened up after that, not taking risky chances to give the Kings any break,
and the teams went to the second intermission with that 3-0 score.
-- The teams split 14 shots in the period, seven apiece; Los
Angeles had a 17-9 edge in shot attempts.
It was a pretty quiet 20 minutes for both goalies.
-- Through 40 minutes, the same four Capitals who did not have
a shot attempt in the first period still did not have one through two periods –
Stephenson, Wilson, Burakovsky, and Boyd.
Third Period
The Caps did a good job in the first eight minutes keeping
the area in front of goalie Pheonix Copley clear of Kings, but they were burned
in the ninth minute, Dustin Brown centered the puck for Alex Iafallo, who
redirected it behind Copley before Nicklas Backstrom could tie him up, making
it a 3-1 game 8:20 into the period.
The Kings started ramping up pressure over the last half of
the period, but the Caps kept the net clean, even when the Kings pulled Campbell
for an extra attacker on a power play to create a 5-on-3 situation. However, the pressure bore fruit in the last
minute when Ilya Kovalchuk buried a shot past a screened Copley to make it 3-2,
at the 19:32 mark.
That would be as close as the Kings would get though, one
last shot going wide just before the final horn, and the Caps evened their road
trip at two wins and two losses, with two games yet to play.
Other stuff…
-- Alex Ovechkin’s power play goal in the first period was
his 241st of his career since coming into the league in 2005-2006. That
gave him exactly 100 more power play goals than the next players in line over
that span – Evgeni Malkin and Steven Stamkos have 141 power play goals in that
period. He added to that total and
margin with a power play goal in the second period.
-- Ovechkin recorded his 10th multi-goal game of
the season, tying Chicago’s Patrick Kane for the league lead. It was the 130th of his career,
one behind Teemu Selanne for second-most all-time. Brett Hull has 158 multi-goal games to top
the list.
-- John Carlson’s assist on the Ovechkin goal was his 300th
of his career, joining Scott Stevens (331) and Calle Johansson (361) as the
only defensemen in Caps history to hit the 300 assist mark.
-- Carlson also recorded his 17th multi-point
game of the season, second among defensemen (Brent Burns: 19).
-- Dmitry Orlov’s assist on the Connolly goal was his first
point on the road since January 20th, breaking a four-game streak on
the road without one. It was his 13th
point on the road this season (3-10-13); he has only four at home (all
assists).
-- The two power play goals for the Caps made it the first
multi-power play goal game on the road since October 22nd in
Vancouver, a 5-2 Caps win. It was their
first multi-power play goal game at any venue since December 11th
against Detroit, a 6-2 win at Capital One Arena.
-- Pheonix Copley broke out of an extended slump. He had been 2-3-1, 4.22, .866 in six
appearances before stopping 26 of 28 shots in the win.
-- There was a moment late when it seemed that Ilya
Kovalchuk was going to lose his mind, and then some teeth when he got up in Tom
Wilson’s face. Wilson is an accomplished
practitioner in the rougher aspects of the game, while Kovalchuk is…well, do
Caps fans remember this?
-- That was the first win for the Capitals in Los Angeles
since taking another 3-2 decision on December 14, 2005. Alex Ovechkin had two assists in that game,
including the primary helper on the game-winning power play goal with 63
seconds left by Jamie Heward. The Caps
had an 0-6-2 record in Los Angeles before this win.
-- The 21 shots on goal for the Caps was the second-lowest
total in a road game this season. They
had 20 shots on goal in the 3-0 loss in Columbus one week ago. It was the fewest shots on goal in a road win
this season.
In the end…
This was another game that one could smile about, given the
venue (where the Caps had not won in more than 13 years) and the circumstances
(laying an egg the previous night in Anaheim).
It was a solid win, and Pheonix Copley deserves a tip of the cap for the
sort of solid backup goaltending effort that has been missing from his game of
late. It puts the Caps in position to
make this a more successful road trip than it seemed it might be when the horn
sounded in Anaheim on Sunday.
