Caps 3, Blues 2
Things are starting to get a little bit tight in the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Caps won their third in a row and sixth of eight. At 80 points they now trail Eastern Conference leader Philadelphia by just six points. They’ve crept to within one point of Southeast Division leader Tampa Bay and No. 4 seed Pittsburgh. And all that with 17 games still to play.
“We can see the guys above us now,” Bruce Boudreau said. “Which is really good.”
Jason Arnott scored the game-winning goal with 5 minutes, 19 seconds left at Verizon Center as Washington rallied to beat the Blues, 3-2. Read the major details in our game story here.
For Arnott, it was his first goal as a Capital since being acquired from the New Jersey Devils on Monday at the trade deadline. For defenseman Scott Hannan it was also his first goal with Washington – and a good chunk of time beyond that. He last tallied on Nov. 23, 2009 against Philadelphia. That’s 119 games in all. But after a sweet pass from Alex Ovechkin sitting behind the St. Louis net Hannan had all the time and space in the world to rip a shot past Blues goalie Ty Conklin.
“I like having that much time. I’m just happy I hit the net,” Hannan cracked.
The Caps have now won 18 games this season by a single goal and are 18-7-10 overall. And that includes each of their last six wins. Last year they were 20-8-13 in one goal games. So actually not that much difference this time around.
Michal Neuvirth made 25 saves on 27 shots, shaking off a pair of goals that were more the fault of his teammates than himself. He also set the franchise’s rookie record for wins in a season (21) – breaking the mark held by Bob Mason.
Arnott used every bit of his 19 years experience on the game-winning goal. Sometimes it’s the little things that matter. Let Boudreau explain.
“[Arnott] is just an experienced body. Things like on his goal – for example things we haven’t seen too much – if we have a 2-on-1 we usually go straight to the net. But he opened up and got ready for the shot. It’s just an experienced move. When Semin gave him a really good pass he didn’t have to make a play on it, he just had to shoot the puck because he was already in a shooting position, which I thought was really good to see.”
Ovechkin had a pair of assists. That gives him 42 for the season – 17 shy of tying his career-best set last season (59). He then apparently had fun celebrating Alex Semin’s 27th birthday. Good times!
Caps have put together a pretty balanced blueline. Even when Mike Green – or maybe even Tom Poti – gets back from injury the days of one guy logging 28 to 30 minutes a night are probably over. Dennis Wideman led all D-men with 22:20 of ice time. John Carlson’s minutes were down to a manageable 21:42. Hannan had 21:37 and Karl Alzner 21:31. Jeff Schultz earned 16:38. That’s pretty close to ideal if you were in the middle of a playoff series – especially if everyone was holding their own.
Also credit Matt Bradley for his first-period pummelling of Blues defenseman Tyson Strachan. That seemed to wake Washington up a bit. Plus, nice to see No. 10 get a few rights in of his own and not leave the ice bleeding all over his own jersey.
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