Troy Brouwer. Tank.
Coming off a key 5-0 shutout victory
against Florida on Saturday, the Washington Capitals needed to kick-start an
important three-game road trip with a win in the return fixture with the
Panthers.
And with starter Braden Holtby coming off
his best game of the season, the Cats turning to back-up Scott Clemmensen, Alex
Ovechkin riding a four-game point streak, and Mike Ribeiro at the top of his
game at the tender age of 33, it looked promising heading in. A Troy Brouwer clincher
32 seconds into overtime would give Washington a 6-5 overtime win.
And so to the recap...
Alex Ovechkin tussled with Kris Versteeg after
a hit left Versteeg hurt on the ice. Punches appeared to be thrown, but the two
stars were handed matching roughing minors instead, with Versteeg receiving an extra
penalty for cross-checking.
The Caps would take a lead on that
powerplay, with Tomas Kundratek (three assists in his last four games) feeding
Mike Ribeiro in the slot and the latter shooting across the sliding Scott
Clemmensen to put his team ahead. Ribeiro’s fifth goal of the year came after
just 4:26.
Former Caps forward Tomas Fleischmann would
equalise only 5:52 later, with a pass to the front of the net deflecting off
John Erskine’s skate and past Braden Holtby. Then the Caps got into penalty
trouble once again, and renowned Caps-killer Shawn Matthias would punish them,
scoring the go-ahead goal at the 13:09 mark off a slap-shot in the high-slot.
The Caps tied the game shortly into the
second, with Karl Alzner blasting home his first of the year from the point off
a faceoff, but Florida would soon restore the lead after a nifty deflection from
winger Peter Mueller. The Caps would once again tie it up, with Matt Hendricks
converting a clever Alex Ovechkin pass right in front for his third of the
year. But after Ovechkin nearly pulverized the crossbar, Florida would restore
their lead, with Jonathan Huberdeau making it 4-3 at 18:26 of an eventful second frame.
Drew Shore’s first career NHL goal would
put the Panthers 5-3 up in the third, a clever baseball swing eluding Holtby,
and it seemed that would be all the Cats needed. But Eric Fehr would get his
first of the year on a good-looking deflection from a Mike Green feed, before
Alex Ovechkin’s fifth of the year tied it up on the PP with 2:49 remaining.
We were all secretly hoping it would go to a
shootout so the Caps could finally showcase the likely-deadly
Ribeiro-Wolski-Hendricks shootout trio, but we’ll take the overtime win. Mike
Ribeiro had a three-point night, Alex Ovechkin got his seventh point in his
last five games, Nicklas Bäckström notched two assists, Braden Holtby made 27
saves, the Caps went 5-for-5 on the PK and 2-for-3 on the PP, Troy Brouwer
scored the overtime winner, and the Caps won their second straight over the
Florida Panthers 6-5 (OT) to improve to 4-8-1.
We won't talk about the game too much. Sometimes, it's better to not overanalyse, and just enjoy. The bottom line is that tonight's Caps team looked like the Caps team of 2008-09, that could be rubbish through 50 minutes but still take home two points. I like that Caps team.
In more important news, Cam Blackwood, our lead writer, published a story today about his good friend Harry Faulkner who died last Thursday of a heart attack at 18. We are trying to spread the story of Harry and make him well-known in the Caps community. Please, please, please, please read Cam's tribute piece for Harry, and if you can find it in your heart, tell your friends. Harry's friends and family would really appreciate it.
For now, enjoy this win, and goodnight.
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