Caps 3, Thrashers 0
Caps threatened to blow this one open early. Brendan Morrison’s power-play goal – assisted, of course, by Alex Ovechkin – gave Washington a 3-0 lead less than five minutes into the second period. Looked like the Caps lost interest later in the period, though. Several bad shifts led to a rash of Atlanta scoring chances. Thrashers should have buried one or two – especially a wide-open Max Afinogenov on a beautiful backdoor pass from teammate Rich Peverley.
Washington will have to kill most of a Tyler Sloan penalty to start the third period. Goalie Semyon Varlamov has 21 saves on 21 shots. Forward Tomas Fleischmann has already logged 10 minutes, 5 seconds of ice time, including 2:16 on the power play, in his first game of the season. Give forward Brooks Laich credit for a solid game. He has a pair of secondary assists, including the faceoff win that led to Ovechkin’s first goal. The big question of the next period? Will Ovechkin register his first hat trick of the season. His 13 goals, according to the Caps’ PR staff, are one shy of the best month of his career. In March of 2008 he scored 14 goals. Ovechkin now has 50 multi-goal games in his five seasons.
