With last nights 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild, the Washington Capitals have now tied the Pittsburgh Penguins in points in the East, and are two away from the struggling second place Islanders.
The Caps (39-23-10) sit atop the Wild Card race at the moment, as Pittsburgh (39-22-10) owns the tie breaker (barely).
Washington finally won at Xcel EnergyCenter having previously lost their past 7 trips to Minnesota. Alex Ovechkin struck twice to up his goal total to 47 on the year, and has now scored 31 goals in his last 37 games.
Ovechkin is running away with the goal scoring race but is also a front-runner for the Art Ross if he can continue this pace. He's currently 1st in the league with 73 points, one ahead of Tavares, Crosby and Nicklas Backstrom.
Backstrom has once again been the unsung hero of the Capitals this season. With Ovechkin closing in on yet another 50-goal season, Backstrom's play has almost been hidden from view. He currently leads the league with 54 assists, 5 ahead of Crosby and Voracek. Backstrom has been used in almost every situation this season, and is quickly becoming one of the best two-way forwards in the league. He'll always be over-shadowed by Ovechkin, but his reputation around the league as the most under-rated player is undisputed.
The Caps also received help from Evgeny Kuznetsov who has been on a roll lately with 5 points in his last 5 games. He put the Caps up 2-0, 40 seconds after Ovechkin's goal, on a 4-on-4 situation. He stole the puck from Minnesota's Jonas Brodin directly in front of the Wild net and danced around Devan Dubnyk to tuck in his 9th of the year.
Kuzy has gradually been rounding out his game, and is becoming a valuable asset for this Washington team especially in the shoot-out. He has scored 4 straight shoot-out attempts including the game winner against Buffalo on Monday.
Brooks Orpik's return was also noted with over 22 minutes of ice time and 3 blocked shots and two hits.
Braden Holtby stopped 28 of 30 shots for his 35th win of the season. He passed former Cap Al Jensen on Washington's all-time wins list with 95. He currently sits third and can easily pass Don Beaupre (128) next season. Olaf Kolzig is first with 301 regular season wins.
Holtby is third in the league in wins and tied for second in shut-outs with 8.
More to come...