Saturday, October 07, 2006

Capitals Stun 'Canes

Capitals 5, Hurricanes 2

Every goal was scored by an Alex. Alex Semin gets his first career hattrick and Alex Ovechkin gets the game winner. No wonder Russia was so mad when these two guys jumped the pond. Bad for them, good for Caps fans.

Capitals always seem to pull it together for home openers (they are 6-1-1 in their last eight home starters). It included some spectacular goals, some sleepers that got past ‘Canes goaltender Cam Ward. This game also included a scary moment when Tim Gleason took out Ovechkin’s legs in the corner after Ovie had a clean hit on Eric Staal (Staal cross checked Ovie earlier in the play). That brought Chris Clark to defend the talented forward and the Capitals momentum was unbreakable.

The Hurricanes have yet to win a game and may have let things go a little bit out of control late in this game. The Caps for the most part looked much faster, a little more put together on special team plays and limited the errand passes. And everyone breathed a sigh of relief after Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season.

Overall Grade: B

Although the Caps had the ‘Canes on their heels, there were times where the Caps got a little Keystone Cops on the ice. The physical play returned and the hits were fast and vicious. The Caps looked more like a returning champion than their counterparts.

Wash Post asks the questions, gets the quotes and answers your queries. Clark had two assists and Brian Potheir both had three assists. Thomas Fleischmann was called up from Hershey to be in this game. Semin has 4 goals in 2 games. Although he didn’t score, Brian Sutherby played probably his best game as a Capital. He always seemed to be in the right place offensively and had his more than fair share of chances in front of Ward.

Caps take a road trip to St. Paul to face the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. The Caps did not play the Wild last season or anyone else for that matter in the Northwest Division. Caps return to home ice Saturday October 14th to host division rivals Atlanta Thrashers.

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