Caps Comeback Not Enough

Capitals 4, Senators 5 OT
Game Summary

Another bad start got the Capitals off on the wrong foot. But they battled back into the game and eventually got the lead back. But a bad bounce and some badly timed penalties helped the Ottawa Senators over take the Caps in overtime 5-4.

Alex Semin scored a pair of goals and Mike Green and Mathieu Perreault added goals to what looked like a successful come back for the Caps. But some bad penalties did the Caps in the end. Not to mention the bad start.

Once again, the Capitals fell behind in the first period. And once again it would be an extreme angle shot that caught Jose Theodore off guard. Peter Regin scored from an extreme angle and the puck bounced off of Theo's blocker and into the net. The Capitals would answer with a power play goal by Alex Semin who caught Sens' goaltender Brian Elliot deep in his net.

But the Caps would give up a power play goal to Jason Spezza (even though it looked as if Mike Fisher interfered with Theodore on the goal). Chris Campoli added another goal to give the Senators a 3-1 lead in the first period. The Caps would wake up in the second period.

Alex Ovechkin briefly took over the points lead when he fed Semin a pretty pass on a two on one (Henrik Sedin took back the scoring lead against the Coyotes). Ovi drew the defender in and found Semin breaking in alone. Semin put the puck top shelf as Elliot went for the poke check. It started the Caps comeback. Green would score just :54 seconds later as Tom Poti fed him a nice one timer that beat Elliot over his left shoulder. Just like that, the game went into the final framed tied up.

In his second game, Perreault scored a goal. Right off the face off, Eric Fehr won the battle in the corner for the puck and found Perreault chugging to the net. The little guy was able to get an angle on Elliot and beat him with his back hand shot. That would give the Caps the lead, but it wouldn't last.

The Caps would take some ill-timed penalties and the Senators would make them pay. Spezza scored his second power play goal when he centered the puck and it ricochet off of a sprawling Jeff Schultz and beat Theodore. In overtime, Nick Backstrom would take a tripping call with just over 30 seconds left in overtime and Alexei Kovalev scored the game winner off of a deflected shot.

The Caps have slumped to a 1-1-2 in their last four games. While the games have been close, the Caps still have not had a win in their last three games. The team doesn't seem like it is helping Alex Ovechkin win any hardware this summer as Ovi has only managed 5 points in his last 5 games.

Washington needs to come to the realization that other teams are going to bring their best when they play the Capitals. They have to be more prepared early in games. Falling behind in the first period by 2 or more goals is just too much to ask against teams that are fighting for playoff spots. They need to clean up their act, and put forth a better effort in the first period.