After victory, top seed well within their grasp
One night after clinching the Southeast Division title for the fourth consecutive season the Capitals took one more step towards securing the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Mike Knuble and Jason Chimera both recorded power-play goals in the first period and goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped 31 shots as Washington handled the Florida Panthers 5-2 on Wednesday night at Verizon Center.
The Caps (48-22-11, 107 points) now need a single point at Florida in the regular-season finale on Saturday night to earn the No. 1 seed heading into next week’s Stanley Cup playoffs. Even with a loss to the Panthers on Saturday they could still clinch if Philadelphia (46-23-11, 103 points) fails to win both of its remaining games. The Flyers do hold the tiebreaker. With Wednesday’s victory Washington clinched at worst the No. 2 seed.
“We didn’t play the way we wanted to,” said Chimera, whose team was outshot 18-6 in the first period alone and yet was ahead. “Obviously we played pretty bad in the first and were lucky to be up 2-0. Second period played a bit better. And in the third period we played okay for the first 15 minutes and then letdown. We got away with one. Just got to play a whole lot better next game.”
Brooks Laich set up the Caps’ first goal when he drove hard into the offensive zone on the left wing and directed a pass in front to Knuble. The veteran winger tapped the puck over Florida goalie Scott Clemmensen (20 saves) for a 1-0 lead just 80 seconds into the game.
Washington struck again with just 37 seconds left in the first period. Nicklas Backstrom earned some space behind the Florida goal thanks to some creative stickhandling and found Chimera in front. He slammed a shot from the slot for a 2-0 advantage.
Defenseman Sean Collins – just recalled over the weekend from AHL Hershey to help on Washington’s injury-depleted blueline – recorded his second NHL goal, taking a feed from Alex Ovechkin and wristing a shot past Clemmensen to make it 3-0. Collins’ only other NHL goal was also a primary assist by Ovechkin. This was just his 18th NHL game.
“The type of game I play I’m more of a defensive defenseman so I don’t always get opportunities to shoot,” Collins said. “But some games the puck finds you and I think that’s kind of what happened to me tonight.”
Caps forward Matt Hendricks later added an insurance goal in the third period. His tally was No. 9 on the season, tying a career high set last season with Colorado. Ovechkin finished the scoring with an empty-net goal, his 32nd of the season.
“We’re prepared for Saturday’s game. [But] we’ll do a little scoreboard watching to find out who we’re going to play,” said Laich, who had two assists. “Then Monday and Tuesday we’ll have some solid practices and ramp it up for Wednesday or Thursday or whenever [the first-round playoff series] is.”
