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Injured Caps bury Avalanche - Backstrom OT Winner |
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In a game where the Washington Capitals played their third game in four nights on the road and with three key players out of the lineup they could have been excused for not coming away with two points in Denver Friday night versus the Avalanche. Braden Holtby, Evgeny Kuznetsov and TJ Oshie all did not dress in the game. Colorado had won three in a row and scored 12 goals in their last three and came into the game with the best line in hockey.
The Capitals wanted to get off to a good start but just 1:08 in they found themselves down 1-0 when Carl Soderberg scored his 7th on the year. The defensive zone coverage was bad on the play and John Carlson made a bad turnover to Tyson Jost who then wheeled back towards the Caps goal and made a nice feed into the slot to a wide open Soderberg.
The Capitals started to get their chances as the top line with Lars Eller, playing for the injured Evgeny Kuznetsov, had the Avalanche hemmed in for long periods of time though Caps goalie Pheonix Copley had to make a huge save on a Nathan MacKinnon breakaway to keep the Caps within one eight minutes in.
The Caps power play hadn’t scored in three straight coming into the game and their first tonight at 14:07 had good looks as both Ovechkin and Carlson fired tough shots on former Cap and starting Avalanche goalie Phillip Grubauer. After a rough start to the game the Caps finished the period strong and held a 13-9 shot on goal advantage. Ovechkin was solid with 3 shots and 2 hits and Copley’s strong play since Holtby went down continued. In the period the Avalanche won 15 of 20 face-offs in an area continuing to plague the caps.
The Avs came out hot again in the second period and Nicklas Backstrom had to take a hooking penalty 31 seconds into the frame to stop a high scoring chance in front of Copley. The Avalanche power play was three for three in their previous game and was 3rd in the NHL at 29% coming in. The Caps PK struggling for the better part of the season held strong however and the Avalanche never had a great quality chance.
The Caps went on their 2nd PP of the night at 6:20 and while only generating one shot they had plenty of ozone time and possession and the momentum carried into even strength play shortly thereafter as Devante Smith-Pelly buried his 3rd goal on a great three way passing play with Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd to tie the game 1-1.
After an Avalanche goal post and a couple nice saves from Copley the Caps went ahead 2-1 on Ovechkin’s 13th when the franchises’ all-time leading scorer fired a wicked wrist shot past Grubauer at 18:29 from Backstrom and Wilson.
Coach Todd Reirden had been playing Backstrom on the top line late in the periods and it paid off. The Caps had a 12-9 shot advantage in the period and 25-18 overall.
The third started out much like the other periods as the Avalanche carried the play as the Caps didn’t register a shot until the midway point of the period. Madison Bowey almost scored his first NHL goal as he rang a shot off the post at 5:39.
The Caps PK was tested again at 6:16 as Eller got the gate but again a struggling PK unit held strong and kept the Caps one goal lead preserved. Dmitry Orlov was highsticked but no call went to the Avalanche much to the dismay of the Capitals bench. The defenceman had blood from his mouth at the bench.
The game was almost over when Colorado tied the game 2-2 on a Colin Wilson goal as he whacked the puck out of mid air after a rebound in front. The Capitals challenged the play for goalie interference but lost though coach Todd Reirden would admit after the game he figured it wouldn’t get overturned but wanted a timeout in effect to talk to the club about still coming away with a win in the game.
The Capitals then got their third chance with the man advantage at 18:51 when Avalanche defenceman Ian Cole was called for holding. They could not score in regulation and the game then went to OT with the Caps still on the power play. Washington didn’t take long to finish the game when Nicklas Backstrom scored his 5th to give the Caps the 3-2 win on the PP 22 seconds in the extra period. The slick Swede has a history of OT winners including 4 in playoff games over his career.
Coming into the game the Colorado line of Mackinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen had been racking up points but the Caps held them off the scoresheet in the victory.
The win puts the Caps in 3rd spot in the Metro division with 21 points three back of leader Columbus.
The Caps now have 2 days off before ending their four game road trip as they head to Montreal to play the Canadians Monday night at 7:30 PMEST.
Capital Gain:
Jonas Seigenthaler reassigned to Hershey Nov. 16
Ilya Samsonov Reassigned to Washington Nov 16
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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