New acquisition notches game-winner in his second game in Washington
He has not played with his new teammates long. But Capitals center Jason Arnott did not need months or years of familiarity to finish the game-winning goal Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues.
He saw a turnover near the blueline created by Brooks Laich and the puck slide to linemate Alexander Semin. Before the pass even came across the ice Arnott had turned his body with his stick in the air. That’s 19 years of professional experience, not chemistry. When the puck arrived, Arnott deposited his shot past Blues goalie Ty Conklin and helped lift Washington to a 3-2 victory at Verizon Center.
“There’s times where you’ve got to grind it out and just play solid ‘D,’ and there’s going to be games or shifts where you don’t get offensive opportunities,” Arnott said. “But we have to play solid defensively … [and] the offense should come after that.”
The Caps (35-20-10, 80 points) have won three games in a row and six of their last eight. They also pulled to within one point of Southeast Division leader Tampa Bay (37-27-7, 81 points) with a game against the Lightning coming up Monday night.
St. Louis took the lead at 11:25 of the first period when Alex Steen finished a 3-on-2 rush after a nice pass from teammate Chris Stewart. It was the fourth game in a row Washington has fallen behind in the first period.
The Caps fought back in the second period. Defenseman Scott Hannan recorded his first goal since his trade here from Colorado on Nov. 30, holding the puck after a fine pass from Ovechkin and roofing a shot over Conklin’s left shoulder.
Washington gave it back just 2:06 later when B.J. Crombeen stripped John Erskine after a faceoff win and rushed up ice to score on a 2-on-1. But 1:34 after that Backstrom whacked a puck out of the air past Conklin to tie the game at 2-2. In all there were three goals scored in 3:40.
