Vokoun, Washington overcomes errors, win in shootout
It was far from a Fall Classic.
The Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning combined for enough miscues and mental errors to last a month. But in the end, someone had to win Monday night’s game at Verizon Center. After recovering from a disastrous debut with his new team, Washington goalie Tomas Vokoun steadied himself in the third period, overtime and the shootout and helped his club secure a wild 6-5 victory before a sellout crowd of 18,506.
“It just shows how strong this team is,” said Vokoun, who shook off three shaky goals early in the game to finish with 23 saves on 28 shots. “They literally won today without goaltending.”
But if it wasn’t the start Vokoun wanted — the crowd dropped a Bronx cheer on him after a nice save late in the third period — he gave his teammates a chance to rally. Defenseman Brett Clark scored at 12:56 of the third period to put the Lightning ahead 5-4. But Jason Chimera recorded his second goal of the game — Nos. 100 and 101 of his career — with 2:44 to play to tie the game at 5-5.
Both teams had to survive extended power-play time in the extra session before heading to a shootout. A beautiful move by Caps forward Matt Hendricks put Washington up a goal early in the shootout. Vokoun made a pair of nice saves, and Alexander Semin gave the Caps the victory by scoring on his shootout attempt. Tampa Bay goalie Dwayne Roloson didn’t exactly have his best game, either, with 38 saves on 43 shots.
“There were three fluky goals, I think, on [Vokoun]. For most of the game we carried the play, and we played a pretty solid game,” Chimera said. “We were down lots but kept coming back, kept coming back. Nice to get the win, that’s for sure.”
Marcus Johansson — benched for the season opener Saturday night against Carolina — had a strong game, drawing two penalties, scoring a goal in the first period and assisting on a goal in the second. Chimera went out of his way to praise the 21-year-old Swede for rebounding instead of pouting after being a healthy scratch. Defenseman Dennis Wideman and forward Troy Brouwer also scored for Washington, which was an ugly 0-for-7 on the power play. The Caps trailed in the game four times before rallying for the win. They improved to 2-0 on the season.
“It’s great,” Johansson said. “Maybe not the way we won the game, but we got two points, and we’ll correct our mistakes. You get two points and you’re happy with that.”
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