Caps strike Lightning 3-1

With around 18,000 fans in attendance at the St. Pete Times Forum, the Washington Capitals welcomed Captain Alexander Ovechkin back to the ice after serving a two game suspension for shoving Chicago Blackhawks’ Brian Campbell. Although the team has historically done well enough without him in the line-up, having their captain back surely settled the nerves of the Caps, who have had a rough few days after suffering an overtime loss to Carolina the previous game.
It was the nifty passing of Washington’s Eric Fehr and David Steckel which allowed Capital’s Tomas Fleischmann to get the first goal of the game. Newly acquired Capitals defensemen Joe Corvo sat for the night, after scoring 2 goals against his former team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Unfortunately, it was the Capitals’ defensive pairing of Jeff Shultz and Mike Green which allowed Tampa’s captain, Vincent Lecavalier, to tie the score. Not to be left out, Nicklas Backstrom’s indirect pass to speeding Alex Ovechkin, once again put the Caps in the lead, and gave Ovi his 45th goal of the season. Two Capitals’ power play opportunities would go unused, but the scare of the period occurred when Lightning goalie, Antero Niittymaki, almost scored a shorthanded goal after Jose Theodore left his crease during the delayed penalty. The helpless Caps watched helplessly as the puck sailed directly at their empty net, but thankfully went just wide of the opening.
In the second period, Theodore stole the show making beautiful save after beautiful save to prevent not only a shorthanded goal attempt by Tampa’s Martin St. Louis, but again stopped the ever flashy Lecavalier from stuffing the puck on a Lighting PP. Capitals trade deadline acquisition, Scott Walker, would leave the game after a fighting major, having suffered some sort of injury in his fight with Lightning’s Zenon Konopka, who also served a 5 minute major.
The third period had plenty of saves, hits, energy, and a goal by Alexander Semin to make it 3-1, assisted by Brooks Laich’s rebounded first attempt. Again, the stellar goaltending on the part of Theodore kept the team focused and motivated to reach for the win in their quest for the NHL President’s Trophy. As of tonight, the Capitals are still in 1st place with 106 points, with the next closest teams, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks tied at 96 apeice.
Of note
Caps have been called far too many times for too many men on the ice lately. Once is too many, but twice in one week?
The early tentative play of Ovechkin didn’t take long to dissolve, as his goal and nice hits tonight on Tampa’s Thompson and Downie.
Mike Green took a Kurtis Foster slap shot to the boot, but was out on the ice for his next shift. Hopefully this won’t affect his game too much, as the team needs to be ready for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, March 24th at Verizon Center.