Stopping The Skid

Capitals 2, Lightning 1

A spectacular ending and a pretty tic-tak score helps the Caps from losing 4 straight. And against the Stanley Cup Champions who played a phenomenal game against the Flyers yesterday.

The Caps seem to have the magic bullet against the Lightning winning 3 out of the five games they have played so far. Although a majority of those games have been at home, the final three games at Tampa Bay.

Jeff Halpern and Dainius Zubrus were the goal scorers for the Caps. Zubrus’ goal came with 2:20 left to play in the third. The Caps were able to hold off a scramble late including a shot that hit the inside of the post with nano-seconds left in the game.

Olie Kolzig played solid and it helped to have Jamie Heward back in the line up. Heward gave the blue line men some strength and speed. When the Lightning forwards looked to gobble up rebounds or bad clearings, Heward’s speed was able to negate those chances.

Alex Ovechkin settles for an assist, but a pretty one on a tic-tak play. After a turn over in the neutral zone, Ovechkin was able to gain the blue line but drew two Lightning defenders to him. After an attempted poke check, Ovie passed the puck towards the slot finding Chris Clark who wisely passed it to an open Zubrus in front of the net. There was little John Grahame could do to save the quick passing play.

Overall Grade: B

The Caps were able to come back from 3 straight losses to play well against Tampa Bay. They were physical and fast against the Lights. Kolzig had 34 saves and played one of his better games.

Wash Post will have some deeper coverage on this as well. Caps will play the Islanders Tuesday, during the State of the Union Speech which takes up every channel here in D.C. Capitals must bring their work ethic and strong physical play and continue to play well.