Capitals 2, Islanders 3 OT
Scoresheet - Wash Post
After ratting out Olaf Kolzig on being too soft on some of his goals he came out with an excellent effort against the New York Islanders. But it was another soft goal that was the down fall of Kolzig and the Caps after scrapping back to put the game into overtime. It was an extreme angle shot by Richard Park that has the Caps coming home with just one point.
Not that it was all Kolzig's fault. The Caps were out worked in this one to a degree, and Kolzig had to face down 31 shots to Rick DiPietro's 16. In fact the Islander goaltender didn't face a single shot in the overtime frame. With the Caps battling a well defended Islander game all night, it was interesting to see that the ones that seemed to come through the most were ex-Islanders. Both Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov finished the night with a +2 rating with Kozlov getting two assists. The goal scorers shouldn't have been a surprise in this one with Alex Semin and Alex Ovechkin both getting tallies (5th and 25th on the season respectfully).
Olaf Kolzig did have a spectacular game. While the goals from Miroslav Satan on a break away and Billy Guerin from a funny rebound off the boards bested Olie, I didn't feel he was at fault for either one. However the overtime winner I do hole Kolzig responsible for. Even with Mike Green down and a virtual 4 on 3 ensued, from that angle Kolzig should have stopped that puck.
Besides the exciting finish, the rest of the game really lacked any punch from either side. The Islanders were able to bottle up Ovie pretty good, and the lack of offensive punch really hurt the Caps who are now nowhere closer to climbing out of 15th in the Eastern Conference. Lucky for the Caps they get some days off for Christmas and return to the ice the day after to face the Tampa Bay Lightning at home. Then no time to waste, the Caps face the dreaded Penguins on Dec. 27th at the Mellon.
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