Caps 3, Tampa Bay Lightning 2
The streak continues. The Caps matched the 1983-84 squad with their 10th consecutive victory on Sunday afternoon – this time a gutty 3-2 win over Tampa Bay, the team that last took down Washington. It wasn’t always pretty. The Lightning didn’t want any part of a run-and-gun shootout – even though they have some pretty potent weapons of their own. So it became a game almost everyone described as “sleepy.” The Caps were up 2-0 entering the third period and just needed to kill off the final 20 minutes to go home with yet another win.
Didn’t work out that way of course. Martin St. Louis tipped home a nice goal five minutes into the period and then Steven Stamkos scored on the power play. Washington turned sloppy all of the sudden and was scrambling just to keep from falling behind. But they settled down and found a way to win when Alex Ovechkin took a nice little pass from Nicklas Backstrom and fired a low shot past Tampa goalie Mike Smith (28 saves on 31 shots). That was all she wrote. Tampa’s final hopes were dashed when captain Vincent Lecavalier was kicked out of the right offensive faceoff circle with just under three seconds left, earned a two-minute unsportsmanlike penalty for his reaction and was then kicked out of the game entirely when he ripped into the linesman. That moved the final faceoff into the Lightning’s end and sealed the win for the Caps.
Ovechkin now has 35 goals and 41 assists. He is second in the league in goals and two points behind Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin (78) for the overall lead. Nicklas Backstrom, meanwhile, set his career high in goals with 23. He had a power-play tally in the second period. Brooks Laich notched goal No. 16 and has scored five times in the last eight games. Alex Semin extended his point streak to nine games with his second period assist. Eric Fehr didn’t record a point, but he did take three shots on goal and had two takeaways. So he was awarded the hard hat for the day. Tomas Fleischmann had a brutal giveaway on the penalty kill and a subsequent penalty. Tampa Bay eventually scored the tying goal in the third period. Don’t feel too bad for Flash – he also had two assists and has eight points over his last six games.
In pregame news, rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth was returned to AHL Hershey. He needs to miss five Caps games between now and Feb. 12 to qualify for AHL play during the Olympic break. The first one was tonight so he played for the Bears against Binghamton, a 6-1 victory. Neuvirth made 32 of 33 saves.
“We talked about it. We’d like to try it. If we can get away with Michael being down there five out of the next eight and being allowed to play during the Olympic break, great,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “If it doesn’t work out that way then we have no qualms about calling him up. I can guarantee he’ll be called up again before the Olympic break to play. But we thought ‘Okay, he can go down there and play today and that’s one game – then there’s only four more and we’ll find different ways to make that work. I think [Theodore] will play in Boston so that will be two games and then we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Caps Notes
» Washington is now 13-2-0 in January and set a franchise record for most wins in a single month and tied the record for most points (26). The Caps are now 21-3-3 at Verizon Center and have won nine home games in a row. No NHL team has fewer regulation losses at home. Overall record: 37-12-6, 80 points. NHL win streak record: The Penguins in 1993.
» The Caps have recorded at least one power-play goal in the last nine games. Nicklas Backstrom struck this time just 57 seconds into the second period. They are 16-for-40 on the PP in the last 12 games.
» Jose Theodore, making his first start since leaving Tuesday’s game against the Islanders with a hip injury, stopped 25 of 27 shots. That is his seventh straight victory. That matches his longest career win streak – set in 2001-02 with Montreal when he won the league’s Hart Trophy as NHL MVP.
Notable Quotable
Brooks Laich on winning a game where the Caps weren’t always at their best…
“Just means we get the job done. I think a sign of a very good hockey team is when they can win when they’re not at their best. And tonight I think we did that. There’s going to be games when we’re going to play really well and we’re going to win based on our talent and ability. And then there’s going to be games when maybe we haven’t played so well, but we can still eek them out. But in order to have winning streaks like that – like the one we’re on – you have to do that time in and time out.”
Laich with a follow up on Alex Ovechkin’s quiet night – until the game-winning goal
“Ovi is Ovi. It’s the same thing I just mentioned about our team – maybe he wasn’t his best tonight. But he still gets the job done with the goal late. You find a way to win. Somehow you’ve got to be scrappy, you’ve got to be dirty. Whatever you’ve got to do to find that way to win. It’s like they say in the Fast and the Furious there – “It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile.” Winning is winning. [Pause] Vin Diesel.”
Tampa Bay coach Rick Tocchet on the game winner
“When Ovechkin is on the ice and one of your defensemen loses his stick you’re in trouble. We had a couple of breakdowns, we had two guys go to one guy and [Backstrom] makes a good play there to Ovechkin for the goal…He’s a talented guy. If you give him a chance he’s going to score most of the time.”
