Caps 5, Thrashers 4
The Caps have talked a lot over the last two weeks about developing a killer instinct to close out games. Keep trying, boys. Because that third period against Atlanta won’t get it done. Despite outshooting the Thrashers 13-10 in the third period, Washington found itself struggling to hold on in the final seconds. Caps were whistled for three penalties in final 2 minutes, 42 seconds – including one on Alex Ovechkin. After the Thrashers pulled goalie Johan Hedberg, Washington faced a 6-on-3 penalty kill for 45 of the final 57 seconds. It was 6-on-4 for the other 12 seconds.
It is just October. And any win on the road is a good one. But Bruce Boudreau will still want to see more from his team as it heads to New York to play the Islanders on Saturday. The good news? The Caps scored five goals and none came from Alex Ovechkin (or the ill/injured Alex Semin for that matter). Matt Bradley. Chris Clark. Eric Fehr. Alexandre Giroux. Washington needed its secondary scoring to kick in and it did tonight.
Semyon Varlamov allowed a bad shorthanded goal in the third period. He, too, needs to finish games better. He’s been culpable in several of these late meltdowns. Up 5-2 with 15 minutes left you’re just asking to lose by giving the home team a shorty. Thrashers star Ilya Kovalchuk was dominant. He scored twice and had a ton of quality chances. But while he may have tied Ovechkin for the NHL lead with nine goals, Kovalchuk will be thinking about his slap shot in the final seconds. Max Afinogenov was there for the rebound, but couldn’t push the puck past Varlamov after two whacks on the doorstep. Schultz finished off a good night by blocking one last Atlanta shot to preserve the win.
