VANCOUVER -- A shift-by-shift look at Alex Ovechkin's performance against Team Canada in Russia's 7-3 loss to the Canadians on Wednesday night.Check out Sidney Crosby's shift-by-shift
| FIRST PERIOD (6:46 ice time: 1 shot, -1, 1 hit) |
| 20:00 – 19:43 (:17 Even strength): E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Ovechkin starts the game with what have become his regular linemates: Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Semin. They change after 17 seconds in what looks like the first example of line-matching of the game. For Canada, Jonathan Toews centered Mike Richards on his left and Rick Nash on his right, with Scott Niedermayer and Shea Weber on defense; this proves to be a potent shut-down unit. |
| 17:39 – 16:50 (:49 Even strength): E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Despite facing the same Richards-Toews-Nash-Weber-Niedermayer unit, Ovi stays out for :49 this time. He gives the puck away in the corner and the Canadians get a scoring chance, but nothing on the scoreboard. |
| 14:10 – 13:05 (1:05 Even strength): E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| The same five players skated against Ovechkin in what clearly will be Mike Babcock’s shut-down unit. At one point, on the wall, he attempts to get the puck out of the zone but Weber steps up and hits him hard. The puck stays in. |
| 12:02 – 11:03 (:59 Power play): E, 0 points 1 shots 0 hits |
| In the first power play of the game, Ovechkin lines up on the left side with Malkin in the middle and Pavel Datsyuk on the right, with Sergei Gonchar on the right point and Ilya Kovalchuk on the left. In a battle in the corner, Weber and he go for the puck and Ovi’s stick explodes. He looks for a penalty but doesn’t get it. After getting another stick from the bench, he gets the puck late in his shift. He attempts to make something happen but Drew Doughty flattens him, turns around, grabs the puck and clears it down the ice. |
| 10:42 – 10:00 (:42 Power play): E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Ovechkin stays on for the remainder of the Russian power play but nothing happens. |
| 7:51 – 7:05 (:46 Even strength): -1, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Ovechkin, Malkin and Semin enter the zone but don’t get the puck deep. The puck is turned over near the blue line. Richards (the same line defended Ovi all period) grabs the puck and sends a cross-ice pass to Rick Nash while Ovechkin looks to backcheck, dropping his head for some hard skating, but Toews finds Nash for a breakaway. Nash lifts the puck over a sliding Evgeni Nabokov for Canada's third goal and a 3-0 lead. |
| 5:21 – 4:16 (1:05 Even strength): E, 0 points 0 shots 1 hit |
| Near the end of a minute-long shift at the end of the period, Ovechkin hits Patrick Marleau as he receives a pass just over the Canadian blue line. |
| 3:32 – 2:25 (1:07 Even strength): E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Ovechkin spends some time in the neutral zone, but not much happens for him and he changes. |
| End of period |
| SECOND PERIOD (7:14 ice: 2 shots, -1, 1 hit) |
| 20:00 – 19:25 (:35 Even strength) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Things stay the same, same D-unit against Ovechkin. Finally something happens, as he picks up the puck along the left side and takes a shot but Weber deflects it harmlessly into the corner. |
| 16:50 – 15:53 (:57 Even strength) -1, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| The same five-man unit continues to hound Ovechkin. At one point during his second shift of the period, Ovechkin, and members of Team Canada and Team Russia scrum for the puck. Ovechkin gets pushed out, and eventually the puck squeaks out to Toews, who passes to Weber, who crushes a puck past Nabokov for a 5-1 lead. |
| 13:13 – 11:48 (1:25) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| This marks the first time Ovechkin skates with his new center, Sergei Fedorov, which means the Russians have revived a unit that played together in Washington and at the World Championships in 2007, Ovechkin-Fedorov-Semin. Near the end of a long shift, Crosby jumps on for Team Canada, and Ovechkin takes the opportunity to slash him in the back of the legs as they cross paths in the Russian zone. |
| 9:12 – 7:02 (2:10, Even strength) E, 0 points 1 shot 1 hit |
| In his (and likely anyone’s) longest shift of the game, Ovechkin starts against the same D-unit he’s seen all game. Things look good for Russia early on, as new goalie Ilya Bryzgalov makes an incredible save on a cross-ice pass. Then Team Canada takes a too-many-men penalty. Ovechkin stays on, and Gonchar puts a seeing-eye shot through and scores. Ovechkin is reunited with his linemates, who don’t do much. Ovechkin gives the puck away in his own zone, but nothing happens -- and in retaliation, he hits Eric Staal for his second hit of the night. |
| 3:37 – 2:24 (1:13 Even strength) E, 0 points 1 shot 0 hits |
| After a few minutes of rest following his 2:10 shift, Ovechkin is back out. He breaks his stick halfway through the shift and makes magic with the new twig; he makes a very nice cut-back move and buys himself some space, and fires a bad-angle shot on Luongo, which he deflects and Team Canada accepts and clears. |
| :54 - :00 (:54 Power play) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Ovechkin joins as the extra attacker during a delayed penalty, then stays out for the power play. He breaks another stick crashing the net, bringing his total to four broken sticks on the night. He gets his fifth (that we know of) from the bench. The Canadians hold the line and the period ends. |
| End of period |
| THIRD PERIOD (7:15 ice: 0 shots, E, 1 hit) |
| 20:00 – 18:51 (1:09 power play) E; 0 points; 0 shots; 0 hits |
| Standing behind the goal line, Ovi takes a nice pace from Malkin but has his shot deflected into the upper-netting. He spends the bulk of the PP in front of the net. |
| 18:15 – 17:56 (:19 Even strength) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Seeing the same D-unit he's seen almost all night long, this shift is cut short when a Russian player hooks Toews as he attempts to break in on Bryzgalov. |
| 15:55 – 14:52 (1:03 Even strength) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Immediately after the Canadian power play, Ovechkin gets the puck on a break and comes down the left side, but Weber forces him into the middle, where Niedermayer steps up and blocks his shot attempt. To make matters worse, Ovechkin is responsible for a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty and the Russians start a penalty kill. |
| 12:52 – 12:45 (:07 Even strength) E, 0 points, 0 shots, 0 hits |
| Coming out of the box after the Canadian PP, a whistle ends this shift quickly and Ovi heads to the bench. |
| 12:09 – 11:07 (1:02 Even strength) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| For the first time all night, Crosby and Ovechkin will change at the same time, and take a faceoff as each begins a shift. It also marks the first time Ovechkin skates on a line with Fedorov and Malkin, meaning Semin is relegated to another line. At the end of this shift, the Vancouver crowd begins to chant "Ovi…Ovi…Ovi…" and continues as he stews on the Russian bench. |
| 8:13 – 7:58 (:15, Even strength) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| The Russians stick with their new line, but :15 into the shift, Ovechkin attempts to catch a puck shot into the Russian zone from Toews, and appears to hurt himself. He goes to the Russian bench. |
| 5:35 – 3:30 (2:05, Power play) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| Ovechkin moves up to the left side on the PP, instead of where he had been spending Russian power plays, in front of the net, and lets go two one-timers (one is high, the other blocked), and a nice slap-pass that is too hot for one of his teammates to handle. All in all, the Russians have good pressure but have nothing to show for it. |
| 1:28 – 0:13 (1:15, 4-on-4) E, 0 points 0 shots 0 hits |
| After Semin hits Dan Boyle, Boyle chases him down and knocks him to the ice. After a scrum ensues, the teams line up 4-on-4, with, you guessed it, both Crosby and Ovechkin taking the ice for his respective side. Ovechkin lines up wide on the draw, but it’s Crosby who, after a good clear by the Canadians’ d-pairing of Pronger and Niedermayer, ends up with a breakaway. He goes to his backhand but lifts it high and wide and gets the glass. |
| End of game |
*NHL.com’s unofficial Alex Ovechkin Game Total: 21:15 Time on Ice: 0 points, 3 shots, -2 rating, 3 hits |
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