Caps 5, Islanders 4 (shootout)
Another wild night at Verizon Center. The Caps had a lead in eight seconds thanks to Alex Semin. They lost it less than a minute later. They fell behind 3-1. They fought back to go up 4-3 entering the third. Then they took three penalties and one of them proved costly as the Islanders tied the game with 2:08 to play.
Semin was his spectacularly combustable self in this one. He scored twice. He missed a wide open net and probably could have posted three or four goals. He also tried to get fancy again and got drilled to the ice by an Islanders defenseman. That led to a breakaway goal for Sean Bergenheim. No one knows the roller-coaster ride that is Semin like Caps coach Bruce Boudreau.
“He looked like he wanted to play. And when he wants to play – he could have had six. He makes some moves and he can shoot the puck. He’s scary good when he’s motivated…[But] oh yeah, there was the good and the bad. The goal, the giveaway, the miss. He’s like a lot of us in Washington. At least he’s exciting.”
Caps Notes
» Chris Clark said he’s used his shootout move – a shot to the top-right corner of the goal – in the past. During the Caps’ epic 15-rounder with the Rangers in 2005 he tried it on New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist – who didn’t move. He made the easy save and Clark had four long years to plot his next chance. Clark says “That’s my move.” Singular. There aren’t really any others. We kid. Clark also set a career-best assist streak. He now has one in each of his last four games after assisting on Eric Fehr’s second-period goal.
» Nicklas Backstrom ended the night tied for the NHL lead in assists with his 18th on Tomas Fleischmann’s goal. Fleischmann now has six goals in seven games and a career-best six-game point streak.
» Caps F Mike Knuble has six points in his last three games.
» Caps G Semyon Varlamov had eight saves total in the shootout and the Islanders missed on 10 of 11 attempts total.
» Alex Semin’s goal eight seconds in tied a Caps’ franchise record. The late Gaetan Duchesne did the same on March 14, 1987 in St. Louis.
» Seven of the last nine games between the Caps and Islanders have gone to overtime or a shootout.
» 10 different Caps have scored at least a goal since Alex Ovechkin suffered an upper-body strain against Columbus on Nov. 1.
