Caps 4, Carolina Hurricanes 3 (overtime)
Exciting night at Verizon Center – even if it didn’t start out that way. Mike Green scored the game-winning goal at 1:16 of overtime. It is the 10th time he’s scored a game-winner in his career – long ago earning the tag “Game-Over Green”. It was goal No. 6 for Green as yet another Cap makes a move for double-digits by New Year’s Day. Tomas Fleischmann added goal No. 11. Alex Semin registered Nos. 13 and 14. Since returning from a wrist injury, Semin has four goals and six assists.
“What else can we do? We’re playing at home in front of our own fans and we were down two goals,” Semin said through an interpreter. “There was nothing else to do but start playing great and shooting. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have won the game.”
Added Green: “When [Semin] is on top of his game we usually win.”
Nicklas Backstrom, of course, assisted on the game-winner by Green with a sensational pass. He had two assists on the night and now has 27 on the season to go along with eight goals. He remains up on Alex Ovechkin for most points (35). Ovechkin has 20 goals and 14 assists. He had the secondary assist on Green’s OT goal and the primary assist on Semin’s first goal at 13:07 of the second. That one made it 2-1 Carolina.
The Caps are 8-0 against the Southeast Division this season – the lone NHL team with a perfect division record. Cue up your “Southleast” jokes here. Or don’t. Washington also outshot the Hurricanes 40-19. They hadn’t held an opponent under 20 shots since last March 17 against Florida. The day before that game they outshot Atlanta 50-25.
As for Ovechkin: He had another run in with Carolina defenseman Tin Gleason. This one? Not his fault. Last game it was Ovechkin’s knee-on-knee hit on Gleason – Nov. 30th at Carolina – that led to a two-game suspension. Gleason returned to finish that game, but he was in serious pain. Tonight, an Ovechkin shot rolled right up Gleason’s stick and hit him in the face. It took 30 stitches to close a nasty wound. Gleason is a hockey player, though. He came back in the second period sporting a full shield and then went ahead and scored the game-tying goal at 13:30 of the third period. And it was shorthanded, to boot.
“At least I won’t get suspended this time,” Ovechkin cracked. Indeed. Caps are off to Toronto for a Hockey Night in Canada matchup. Energy should be pretty good in that one even if it’s back-to-back games. Then they fly out to Colorado on Monday for the start of a Western Conference road swing in Edmonton and Vancouver.
