WASHINGTON, DC – The Washington Capitals defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2, Tuesday night at the Verizon Center in Washington. The Capitals had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period. Brooks Laich and Joel Ward scored second period goals for the Capitals after the Carolina Hurricanes had rallied to tie the game.
Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 50th in win over Canes – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Laich scored what ultimately became the game-winner at 17:06 of the second period. Jason Chimera zoomed down the right wing and found Laich in front of the net. Laich finished off the play going to his backhand.
Joel Ward scored 92 seconds later to give the Capitals some breathing room by deflecting Alex Ovechkin’s shot past Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward. Ovechkin’s assist on Joel Ward’s goal gave him 419 for his career, passing Michal Pivonka on the all-time Capitals assists list. Nicklas Backstrom had already passed Pivonka earlier in the season.
The Capitals sat on their lead for the entirety of the third period, allowing only five Carolina shots while registering only one of their own. The third period saw the only two penalties of the game called against the Capitals. Cam Ward finished with 16 saves on 20 shots for Carolina, while Braden Holtby made 23 saves on 25 shots for Washington.
“I thought in the third period we played hockey. We said we’re going to shut you down, and you’re not going to get anything. And that’s how you have to play sometimes. I was happy that we reverted back to the way we needed to play in the third period, especially with the lead, then the way we played in the second,” said Washington head coach Barry Trotz.
Mike Green got the Capitals on the board just 2:46 into the game. Tom Wilson and Curtis Glencross started down the ice in a 2-on-2 rush. Green joined in coming down the left wing in what became a 3-on-3. Wilson fed Green in the left circle, from where he beat Cam Ward.
Ovechkin made it 2-0 at 11:12 of the first period with his NHL-leading 50th goal of the season. Evgeny Kuznetsov fed Ovechkin streaking down the left wing to his favorite spot in the left circle, beating Ward glove side. This was Ovechkin’s sixth 50-goal season, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne and Mario Lemieux as the only players in NHL history with six or more. On that goal, Ovechkin also tied Peter Bondra’s Capitals career goalscoring record with his 472nd goal.
“Every year, it’s harder and harder. But it’s a huge accomplishment with those names up there. It’s always nice. But every year, you don’t know what to expect from yourself, how you are going to play,” said Ovechkin.
“It was good. I mean I hadn’t been around anybody who’s ever scored 50 goals in this league, especially the way it’s so hard to score goals in this league. You know it’s a part of history, a guy who scores 50 in this league right now the way the goal scoring is. Teams check. The goaltenders are so good in the National Hockey League. To get 50, I mean I think I said yesterday, I think he’s like 20 percent than the people next to him,” said Trotz.
“We gave up four goals on the rush, and that’s something we haven’t done in a long time. [It’s] not just the four goals, just that many quality chances off the rush. We’re usually better at sorting that out. We’re better at cutting people off and being above people. We didn’t exactly come back with a sense of urgency,” said Carolina head coach Bill Peters.
Braden Holtby – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Nathan Gerbe opened the scoring for Carolina at 5:00 of the second period. Former Capital Alexander Semin flew down the right wing, prompting Braden Holtby to leave the crease to challenge him. Semin was able to go around him, but was unable to score from a tight angle when Matt Niskanen deflected his shot in covering for Holtby. Holtby was unable to get back in position in time to do anything about Gerbe’s shot off the rebound.
Eric Staal tied the game up at 10:33 of the second period. John-Michael Liles worked the puck around to Chris Terry on the left point. Brooks Orpik was occupied to Holtby’s right by Andrej Nestrasil. Terry found Staal all alone in the slot to Holtby’s left.
“We battled back and you want to take it to 2-2 going into the third [period]. [It was] unfortunate to give those two [goals] up…late…can’t let that happen. Overall, I don’t think we had enough guys that were willing to put the work in to get the job done. We had some guys and not everybody, and when you don’t have everybody, you can work as hard as you want, but it’s not going to happen. Tonight was one of those nights, and we need to respond and be better next game,” said Staal.
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