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Ovechkin Scores Again - Caps Win again over Buffalo - Eichel Good |
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The Washington Capitals won for the second straight game in a shootout over the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 at Capital One Arena Saturday night and Alex Ovechkin extended his point-scoring streak to a personal best 14 games. The win is the fifth in a row for the division-leading Capitals and they have lost only two games in their last 14.
The Capitals penalty killing unit has been struggling lately and things didn’t get much better to start the game vs the Sabres. Michal Kempny took a penalty just 41 seconds into the game and Jack Eichel would score his 11th to make it 1-0 just as the Kempny penalty expired. Though not officially a PPG, you could make the case it may as well have been.
But, like many games recently, the Capitals showed the resiliency and tied the game back up at 3:39 when Brett Connolly scored his 7th. Devante Smith-Pelley stole the puck from Sabres goalie Carter Hutton and fed Connolly off to the side of the net who put the puck in the back of the net. It was Smith-Pelley’s 100th career point with the assist. Connolly is having a career year so far and his presence is being felt wherever coach Reirden slots him in. He has 3 goals and 7 points in his last 7 games.
The Caps would take the 2-1 lead midway through the frame when Jakub Vrana connected with Evgeny Kuznetsov for a beautiful one-time slapshot for his 10th of the season. The assist extended Kuznetsov’s point streak to 8 games.
Just 50 seconds into the second period Buffalo would go on the power play again and Eichel would make the Caps pay with an absolute beauty of a goal as he undressed Dimitri Orlov at the blueline and wired a snapshot short-side over Pheonix Copley to tie the game 2-2.
Few players make that play in the league.
The #1 overall pick in last summers draft Rasmus Dahlin would give the Sabres their second one-goal lead of the game at 7:21 with his 3rd goal of the year and 3rd point of the game to go up 3-2. The smooth-skating rookie is very composed and at times you would forget he is a first-year player and should easily be in the Calder Trophy contention. The night marked his first career 3 point game.
At 13:46 Alex Ovechkin would score his NHL leading 29th goal to continue his hot stretch as he now has 7 goals in his last 3 games and 17 in his last 14 games going back to November 16th. Nicklas Backstrom fed Ovechkin who wired a slap-shot past Hutton to tie the game 3-3.
The game went to OT and after nothing was settled in fairly exciting extra period the teams would go to a shootout and in the 4th round, Ovechkin would send the home crowd home happy as he beat Hutton five-hole to win it for the Capitals. Copley came up huge as well.
The two teams will meet again next Friday in Washington again in what looks to be another exciting matchup as the Sabres have vastly improved and are fun to watch.
Capital Gain:
It’s been reported that the Vancouver Canucks have called about maligned Caps winger Andre Burakovsky. While I don’t believe the Caps are actively looking to rid themselves of the impending RFA but a deal could be in the works. He’s been a healthy scratch in the last 3 games.
The Caps next game is Wednesday night as they host their arch-nemesis Pittsburgh Penguins at 8PM EST at Capital One Arena.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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