Caps and Thrashers tied at 2 after the first period. Eric Fehr and Alexandre Giroux scored for Washington. Max Afinogenov has a power-play goal for Atlanta and then Ilya Kovalchuk added his eighth goal in seven games. He’s now just one behind Alex Ovechkin for the NHL lead.
Those were two big goals for the two Caps. Fehr is fighting for playing time. He hardly saw the ice last Saturday against Nashville despite a solid offensive game. Giroux just wants to stay on the roster. He’s only here because of injuries to forwards Boyd Gordon and Alex Semin. Think Giroux and fellow Hershey callup Keith Aucoin aren’t used to playing together? They knew exactly where the other one was on Giroux’s goal. There’s a reason Giroux had 60+ goals for Hershey last year.
Caps thought they had a 3-1 lead midway through the first period when Mike Knuble scored. But replays showed that he kicked the puck into the goal and wiped it out. Kovalchuk tied it late in the period. Chris Clark failed to stay with the Thrashers star on that play and you just can’t let a sniper like that have any room. He fired a shot past rookie goalie Semyon Varlamov as Clark reacted late.
