Caps O-verwhelm Cats, 4-2
Oshie, Ovechkin and Orpik are the three stars in Washington's fifth win in a row, a 4-2 triumph over the Panthers at Verizon Center on Saturday night.
The victory is Washington's fifth in a row, the team's first five-game winning streak since Feb. 4-11.
For the seventh time in 11 games this season, the Caps got a multiple-goal game out of one of their forwards. Tonight, it was T.J. Oshie who tallied twice, short-siding Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo twice, once to get the Caps on the board for the first time in the second period and again for what would prove to be the game-winning goal in the third.
"We made some dumb mistakes," rues Florida coach Gerard Gallant. "We opened up the ice for them, and they're a team that's going to capitalize on your mistakes. We did a decent job in the first period. I thought we did a great job. And then we caused turnovers and shot ourselves in the foot. And when you open up the play for Washington they're going to finish them."
Washington's first period was lukewarm; the Caps were outshot 10-6 in the game's first 20 minutes, but more telling, they were out-attempted 19-10. The Capitals gave up the game's first goal for just the second time in 11 games, and for the first time in 11 games this season, they found themselves trailing in the first period.
"I think we realized we can't play like that," says Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, "like we played in the first period, and you can see the difference. We put the puck in, put pressure on their [defense] and were physical. And we didn't give them any chances; I think they only had only two or three shots [actually, four] on net in the second.
"We knew if we were going to put pressure on their [defense] and have traffic in front of the net, we were going to get success. I think the guys did a great job of responding after a tough first period, and you can see the results."
Florida struck first on Jared McCann's tip-in of an Alex Petrovic shot from the right point at 5:17 of the first period. The Caps scuffled to get chances from the interior and second-chance opportunities for most of the first half of the game, and veteran Panthers netminder Luongo - seeking his first win in two weeks - was sharp in the early going, too.
Washington began to carry the play territorially and possession-wise in the second, and the Caps drew a trio of power plays in the middle frame, too. The Capitals poured 18 shots on Luongo in the second - the second consecutive game in which they fired 18 times in the middle period - including eight shots on the man advantage.
The Caps finally broke the ice on Luongo on a two-on-one rush midway through the second period. Ovechkin fed Oshie, and the latter banked his shot off the short-side pipe and in, behind Luongo to make it a 1-1 game at 10:40. Luongo stopped 17 of those 18 middle frame shots, and it was looking like one of those nights in which the big netminder would be difficult to beat.
Washington held an 18-4 advantage in second-period shots on net, and a whopping 37-10 bulge in shots on net in the middle stanza.
With an early third period power play, Florida regained the lead. Reilly Smith carried in on the rush, cut to the net and slid the puck between Braden Holtby's legs to put the Panthers up 2-1 at 2:53 of the third.
Just over six minutes later, the Caps pulled even on a dominant offensive-zone shift. By the time Ovechkin deflected Brooks Orpik's point shot past Luongo to tie the game at 2-2 at the 8:42 mark of the third, the Florida blueline pairing of Aaron Ekblad and Mike Matheson had been on the ice for 76 seconds.
Ekblad and Matheson's next two shifts were shorter, but no more successful. That duo suffered the dubious distinction of being scored upon in three straight third-period shifts. They'll have better nights.
Oshie skirted past Matheson near the Florida line and beat Luongo high to the short side for his second of the night at 10:58, giving the Caps their first lead of the night at 10:58.
Lars Eller finished off the scoring at 13:27, flagging down a John Carlson wrist shot and tucking it behind Luongo to enable the Caps to earn their second 4-2 over the Panthers in a span of 16 days.
"We got that power-play goal to go ahead 2-1 in the third period," says Gallant, "and things were looking good for our hockey team. Then we fell apart. The second period was the one that really killed us, because they put all the pressure on us and Luongo kept us in it. It was a matter of time before they were coming back, the way we were playing."
On the other side of the coin, Caps coach Barry Trotz was happy with the way his charges played on this Saturday night.
"Pretty good game for us," says Trotz. "The first period, they were engaged and they jumped on us a little bit. They muddied the neutral zone up pretty good, and we slowed ourselves down with not great execution. The second period, I thought we were really good. The power play was good, our five-on-five, our forecheck.
"[Luongo] was really, really good. But I liked our response. Once they made it 2-1, we just stayed with it and said, 'Hey, keep playing the way that we have and we'll be fine.' We got great contributions through the lineup. We got some dirty goals, guys in front of the net [on] Ovi's goal and Lars' goal. All the good things. We didn't give up too much. After the first period, they didn't have a whole lot."
Florida falls to 1-4-1 on the road this season, and Luongo is now without a win since Oct. 22, a span of four starts.
Five Spot - Washington pushed its winning streak to five on Saturday night when it rebounded from a 2-1 third-period deficit to score three goals in less than five minutes in a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers. The Capitals have their first winning streak of five or more games in 2016-17 and their first since Feb. 4-11 of last season, when they pieced together their fifth winning streak of five or more games in 2015-16.
Florida had the best of the Caps in the first, and Washington yielded the game's first goal for just the second time in 11 games this season. The Caps trailed in the first period of a game for the first time all season.
The Capitals took control of the contest in the middle period, dominating in terms of territory and possession, drawing three penalties and rolling up an 18-4 lead in shots on goal and a 37-10 advantage in shot attempts. But with all that dominance, the Caps were only able to score once, because Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo was at the top of his game. The Caps and Cats were square at 1-1 heading to the third.
Florida took a 2-1 lead on Reilly Smith's impressive power-play rush goal at 2:53 of the third. Down a goal, the Caps kept doing what they had been doing and it paid off handsomely.
A lengthy offensive-zone shift culminated in the tying tally, Alex Ovechkin's deflection of Brooks Orpik's point shot. T.J. Oshie's second goal of the night and Lars Eller's second of the season followed, and three third-period goals in a span of five minutes gave the Caps the lead and ultimately, their fifth straight win.
Washington's offensive zone dominance and presence ultimately enabled it to wear down the Panthers and Luongo and win the game.
"I think we did a better job of managing the puck on some of our breakouts," says Caps coach Barry Trotz, "and then also getting through the neutral zone with a little bit of speed. I thought we were playing a little bit light early, and playing a little bit more of their game.
"We're a lot bigger than them, and I thought we started using our size, [had] more puck possession and size in the interior, and keeping things alive with our size. That being said, I thought we were a little heavier on the puck and therefore we had it a lot more and kept them in their end pretty well the whole second period."
Luongo, bidding for his first win in two weeks, was instead saddled with his fourth straight loss.
"He was outstanding," says Panther coach Gerard Gallant of his goaltender. "The first period, we played a great period on the road against a great team. Second period, he probably made five unbelievable saves to keep it close. And then obviously, they got a couple of goals there that we made some mistakes on."
Seven-Eleven - For the seventh time in their first 11 games this season, the Caps got a two-goal game from one of their forwards. Oshie scored twice for the second time this season; he and Marcus Johansson each have a pair of two-goal games this season while Andre Burakovsky, Daniel Winnik and Ovechkin have each done it once.
To The Top - Ovechkin's goal against Florida tied him for the league lead in goals (temporarily, anyway; Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby scored twice in a late game at San Jose to move one ahead of Ovechkin), despite a 10 percent reduction in ice time this season.
Ovechkin's average ice time this season is at 18:31 per night, the lowest figure of his career; his previous low was 19:48 in 2011-12 when he scored 38 goals. The Caps' captain is finding other ways to score aside from his dazzling rush goals and his bread and butter, the power-play one-timers from his office at the left dot.
Ovechkin scored on a net-front deflection on Saturday, two nights after tallying on a rebound from in tight.
And Then There Was One - With a pair of goals against Florida on Saturday night, Oshie has now scored against every NHL team except one, the St. Louis Blues. Oshie spent the first seven seasons of his NHL career with the Blues, and he has played just one game against them in his career.
His next chance to add the Blues to his victim list comes on Nov. 23, the night before Thanksgiving when the Blues visit Verizon Center. The Caps travel to St. Louis on Jan. 19.
Golden Sombrero - In baseball, going 0-for-4 at the plate and striking out all four times is known as the "golden sombrero." There is no hockey equivalent for that indignity, but a pair of Florida defensemen turned a rare and dubious trick in Saturday's game.
Aaron Ekblad and Mike Matheson are a talented young blueliners, but the duo was on the ice for all three of Washington's third-period goals. Worse, they came on three straight shifts. It's incredibly rare in the modern NHL for any player to be on the ice for a goal against in three straight shifts, particularly when all of the goals were scored at even strength and none was scored into an empty net.
Ailing Jagr - Venerable Florida winger Jaromir Jagr left Saturday's game after just five shifts totaling 4:20. Gallant said after the game he didn't think Jagr's injury would be a long-term issue.
"He had a little bit of a cramp in his groin and he was just a little bit too sore to come back," said Gallant. "He's day-to-day."
Down On The Farm - After taking a 3-2 overtime win in Springfield on Friday night thanks to Colby Williams' first professional goal, the Hershey Bears returned home on Saturday night to host the Albany Devils. Behind Vitek Vanecek's 29-save performance and first AHL shutout, the Bears rolled to a 4-0 victory.
Christian Thomas got Vanecek all the offense he would require with an unassisted power-play goal at 11:40 of the first, Thomas' third goal of the season. Less than two minutes later, Brad Malone netted his team-leading fifth goal of the season with help from Chris Bourque and Riley Barber. When Stanlslav Galiev notched his first of the season from Thomas and Williams at 14:46, it marked the Bears' third goal in a span of just 3:06 and gave Hershey a 3-0 lead.
Williams netted his second pro goal at 16:42 to account for the last goal of the night, getting help from Madison Bowey and Paul Carey.
The 5-2-2 Bears are back in action on Sunday at Giant Center, when they finish off a busy three-in-three weekend by hosting the Rochester Americans.
Down a level, the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays had Friday and Saturday off after their 2-1 win in overtime over the Elmira Jackals on Thursday night. The 2-4-1-0 Stingrays host the Jackals again on Sunday afternoon at North Charleston Coliseum.
By The Numbers -John Carlson led the Caps with 23:59 in ice time … Ovechkin led the Caps with six shots on net and a dozen shot attempts … Tom Wilson and Dmitry Orlov led the Capitals with three hits each … Wilson led the Caps with two blocked shots … Justin Williams won all three of his face-offs while Oshie won three of four (75%) and Lars Eller won eight of 11 (73%).
