He could have been talking about getting a win. Or about finally winning a shootout. Or both. Either way, Alexander Ovechkin summed it up best as he walked to his locker.
“Finally,” he said.
The Capitals beat the visiting New York Islanders, 2-1, in a shootout Sunday afternoon. It’s their first victory in a shootout since last April 15 against Florida; they had lost five straight this season.
And the win snapped a three-game losing streak overall. The Capitals improved to 22-25-7 and gained a little ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race. It was a big win, coming at the start of a four-game homestand.
“We forget what it feels like winning,” Ovechkin said. “This was important for us.”
Alexander Semin had the only goal in the shootout, beating goalie Rick DiPietro with a backhand shot. Olie Kolzig stopped two shots in the shootout. Kolzig said the Capitals have worked more on shootouts in practice lately.
“You get into more of a rhythm,” said Kolzig, who made a save with his right leg on the final shootout.
Matt Pettinger had the Capitals lone goal in regulation, scoring two minutes, 52 seconds into the first period. The Caps allowed a short-handed goal in the second period.
The game was slowed approximately 20 minutes by five stoppages in play to fix the partitions between the glass surrounding the ice. All the breaks forced coach Glen Hanlon to alter his lines and how much ice time he doled out.
“Any time we built momentum, it brought us back,” said defenseman Jamie Heward. “It was tough on guys. That’s a perfect situation for a road team to slow things down. … [The guys fixing the partitions] got more shifts than anyone.”
