The Washington Capitals’ 2011-12 season could be characterized as a roller coaster ride with tons of ups and downs. After a downer on Super Bowl Sunday, losing 4-1 to the defending champion Boston Bruins, the Capitals responded with a 4-0 win last night over the Florida Panthers. The victory gave Washington a 1-point lead over Florida in the Southeast Division and 3rd place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
The Capitals re-energized their high-powered offense to win for only the fourth time in their last ten games. Alexander Ovechkin was the offensive star as he scored two goals to improve his total to a team-leading 22 for the season. Mathieu Perreault and Jason Chimera added goals for the Capitals. Perreault scored the first goal (9th of season) only 13 seconds into the game. After the puck was shot into the Panthers defensive zone, Alexander Semin cutoff a clearing pass to the far side and passed the puck to Chimera. Chimera skated behind the net and whipped a pass in front to Perreault for the goal. Nearly nine minutes into the 1st period, the Caps’ got awarded a power play when Marcel Goc was called for a holding-the-stick penalty. 34seconds later, Ovechkin took a short pass from Dennis Wideman just inside the Panthers’ blue line, moved down the left wing and fired a wrist shot between the legs of Florida goalie Scott Clemmensen for a 2-0 lead at 9:21.
Washington led 2-0 after the 1st period thanks also to the goaltending of Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun stopped 10 Florida shots in the period on the way to 42 saves in the game. He stopped Mike Santorelli on a low shot from the right wing just over 3 minutes into the game. However, Vokoun gave up a rebound to a few feet to his right but Shawn Matthias whiffed on the shot.. It was that kind of night. Everything went well for the Capitals while the Panthers couldn’t get any breaks. 36 seconds later, Vokoun make a sliding stop on a shot by Stephen Weiss from 5 feet right in front of the goal. Matthias was snake bit again on two other chances later in the 1st as Vokoun dropped down to his right to deny a solo effort through two defenders at 11:43. With 20 seconds left in the period, Matthias took a pass from Mikael Samuelsson, faked to his backhand, fired a forehand shot, and was robbed by Vokoun. He did draw a penalty on the Capitals as Wideman was called for slashing.
Starting the second period, the Panthers had the power play but the Capitals would score not Florida. Chimera collected his second point of the game with a shorthanded goal (15th of season) at 1:01 for a 3-0 lead. He used his excellent speed by skating the puck on left wing into the Panthers’ zone before flipping a high pass across to Matt Hendricks. Hendricks moved down the right side and then passed back to John Carlson who sent the puck to Chimera in front of Clemmensen who scored after a couple of whacks at the puck. Vokoun kept the Panthers off the board with key saves on Krys Barch from 15 feet at 2:42 and later Samuelsson on a long wrist shot at 3:52 and on Marcel Goc on a slap shot at 5:02 while Florida was on another power play. Vokoun’s best save of his 17 total in the 2nd came midway through the period on a high shot from Tomas Kopecky following a cross ice pass from Matthias at 9:25. Ovechkin scored his second goal of the game 2:22 later at 11:47 firing a rocket past Clemmensen from the top of the far face-off circle. Ovechkin picked up a loose puck, cut to his right toward the middle and found an opening between Clemmensen’s arm and the crossbar.
In the third period, the Capitals stopped attacking on offense which led to more chances for Florida. The Panthers pumped 15 more shots at Vokoun who saw his teammates lay back too much on defense in the final 40 minutes. Vokoun stopped Kris Versteeg six and half minutes into the third on a low shot. Versteeg dragged puck around Carlson on defense with the Panthers on another power play. Florida had 32 shots on goal in the last two periods (42 for the game) while the Capitals only fired 24 shots on goal for the entire game. The Panthers were 0 for 4 on the power play while the Capitals were 1 for 1. The Caps played a very physical game outhitting Florida 31-19. The 4-0 win was the second shutout for Vokoun against his former team and fourth this season.
Washington leads the Southeast Division with 60 points, one ahead of Florida at 59, and four ahead of Winnipeg at 56. The Jets defeated Toronto 2-1 last night and play at Washington on Thursday. The Panthers return to Florida also that night to host Los Angeles.
No comments:
Post a Comment