Ovechkin, Semin light the lamp in the shootout
It was not exactly the way they wanted to win. For the Capitals this season is about establishing early leads and holding tight to them. It didn’t happen on Wednesday night at Verizon Center.
Instead, the Toronto Maple Leafs needed just 3 minutes, 3 seconds in the third period to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead. Once again, however, Washington’s overwhelming skill turned a likely defeat into a 5-4 shootout victory.
Alex Semin tied the game with a backhand flip over Maple Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 14:22 of the third. In the shootout Semin was at it again, blasting home the game-winner in Washington’s third attempt to secure the win. It wasn’t pretty. But the Caps will take it.
“The win is nice, but we have to buckle down,” said Caps forward Jason Chimera, whose third goal of the season came in the second period. “At 3-1 you can’t let them back into the game. It wasn’t really nothing they did. We gave them three goals we’d like to have back.”
Four-and-a-half minutes before Chimera’s tally, Semin threaded a cross-ice pass to teammate Mike Green, who patiently waited out Gustavsson and roofed the puck into a tiny pocket in the near corner. It was his second goal of the season and the first time Green has scored in back-to-back games since Dec. 23 and 28, 2009.
Just like Saturday night in Calgary, Washington put together an offensive explosion in the second, scoring twice within a minute. Chimera tallied at 10:35 when Boyd Gordon whipped a pass in front for a tip-in goal. Just 53 seconds later defenseman John Carlson fired a shot that was tipped by teammate Tomas Fleischmann for a 3-1 Washington advantage. That was the ninth second-period goal scored by the Caps in their last two games. They posted six on Saturday – one shy of the franchise road record for goals in a single period.
Toronto defenseman Tomas Kaberle’s shot was deflected off the leg of teammate Mike Brown at 4:14 of the third period to tighten the game. Moments later the Caps won an offensive zone faceoff, but the puck hopped over Alex Ovechkin’s stick and the Maple Leafs hit forward Kris Versteeg for a breakaway, which he slid under Washington goalie Michal Neuvirth (24 saves) to tie the game at 3. But it would get worse. Tyler Bozak scored a power-play goal at 7:17 to put Toronto ahead.
But this team was made for such situations. After a wild scramble in front, a shot by Brooks Laich bounced right to Semin, who collected the puck below the goal line with his long reach and – with little room to maneuver – lifted it over Gustavsson to tie the game again. With a goal and an assist, not a bad night for a player who was sick before the game and unsure if he’d make it through warm-ups. Instead, Semin ends the night as Washington’s hero.
“Just a lucky bounce not far from the net,” Semin said through translator Dmitry Chesnokov. “A lot of players fell over and were just laying there. It was luck that I got the puck. There was nothing else to do but shoot it in the net.”
