Caps vs Canes 12/11/2009

This was an interesting game Capitals fans and it turned out to be a rather exciting one at that!

There was not a whole lot for the Caps fans to be excited about in the first period. Jose Theodore allowed two goals. The first was a tip in from Jiri Tlusty at 2:01 which occurred as a rattled Mike Green was returning to the bench. Ward was looking great and the Caps were struggling to get rubber past him. Carolina’s second goal came at 13:56 from Eric Stahl. Just when I thought the Caps had a great scoring opportunity with a half open net, they were robbed by the Carolina defense that came to Ward’s assistance. Towards the end of the period, Carolina’s Tim Gleason took a slapshot from Ovechkin in the face.

At this point in the game both the Caps fans and Alexander Ovechkin where visually showing their frustration. The fans were rather quiet except for the occasional “request” to pull Jose Theodore from the net. (Remember Caps fans, your team is an offensive powerhouse, so a two goal deficit is not an impossible feat to overcome.) Their frustrations also boiled over as they were booing off-sides calls. #8 was very animated looking up to the rafters as Ward continued to shut down the Caps scoring chances. The second period ended and I was surrounded by quite a few disgruntled fans.

I expected the Capitals to take the ice with a tremendous force at the start of the second, however it took them a while to get one past Ward. At 13:07 Alexander Semin scored and I was anxiously awaiting to see if this would wake the Caps up and rattle Ward. As I expected the Washington Capitals began their aggressive offensive attack and the crowd was back into the game. It was a little concerning that the Caps would take a sloppy too many men on the ice penalty after finally getting themselves going. The Capitals did not give up and at 19:59 Alexander Semin beautifully wristed his own rebound up and over Cam Ward. The end of the second period would find the two teams tied.

At 2:52 in the third period, Tomas Fleischmann scored giving the Caps the lead for the first time in the game. Just as I thought that Mike Knuble looked sluggish and winded, he stepped up his game and was robbed by Ward. With Joni Pitkanen serving time in the penalty box, the Capitals could not get their power play to click. At 13:30 Gleason made his presence know by scoring a shorthanded goal tying the game yet again. Theodore and Ward held their ground and the game went into overtime.

At this point I couldn’t help but think that Boudreau and the Caps couldn’t be happy that they gave a division rival a point. The caps came out with a fierce intensity and true to his nickname Mike Green ended the game at 1:16 in overtime.

Well Capitals fans that was one amazing game to attend.

(This is posted on www.crashthecrease.com)