All season long, the national spotlight has focused on Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin. But no player — even a Hart Trophy candidate shattering team records by the bucketful — can will a team to the playoffs alone.
With the Carolina Hurricanes shadowing Ovechkin’s every move during Tuesday’s Southeast Division showdown at Verizon Center, it took others to shoulder the scoring load — at least until the final minutes.
Forwards Matt Cooke, Brooks Laich and Alexander Semin each recorded an early goal as the desperate Caps, their division title hopes on the line, stayed in the Eastern Conference playoff chase with a 4-1 victory. Ovechkin put the game away with his spinning power-play goal with 3 minutes, 36 seconds to play that led to a sustained chant of “MVP” from the sell-out crowd.
The Caps (41-31-8, 90 points) tied Carolina (42-32-6, 90 points) for first place in the Southeast Division. But even now — with two games left — Washington still doesn’t control its own destiny because the Hurricanes will own the tiebreaker if the two teams finish tied in points.
So even with wins over Tampa Bay on Thursday and Florida on Saturday the Caps will need Carolina to slip one more time in its final two contests.
Cooke opened the scoring for the Caps at 15 minutes of the first period, slapping a rebound past Carolina goalie Cam Ward (35 saves). Laich converted a pass from teammate Tomas Fleischmann on the power play at 19:01 of the first. Semin then finished the scoring with a power-play tally at 14:28 of the second. That was all Caps goalie Cristobal Huet (21 saves) needed to hold off Carolina.
Playoff push
» Caps defenseman Shaone Morrisonn left the game in the first period with what team officials described as an “upper-body injury.” He did not return.
» The Caps prevented Carolina from clinching the Southeast Division title and the No. 3 seed in next week’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals. The Hurricanes can still accomplish that feat by winning their last two games.
» Washington also pulled to within one point of Boston and Philadelphia for the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds. Both teams have 40-28-11 records and 91 points and play tonight.
