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The Washington Capitals earned their sixth consecutive win and moved into eighth place in the NHL's Eastern Conference, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning at home in front of yet another sellout crowd. It's the first time the Capitals have managed six straight since January 8-19, 2000. Goalie Cristobal Huet has now won eight straight starts. Alex Ovechkin had another multi goal game. The first one was the game winner, which is something Alex has done 11 times this season.
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The Lightning got their only goal just 39 seconds into the first period. Huet was having trouble controlling a rebound within traffic, when Filip Kuba popped the puck into the net. About 90 seconds later, Washington thought they had tied the score. No penalty was called, but Brooks Laich's goal was denied because of "incidental contact". Apparently, when heavyweight (yeah, right!) forward Tomas Fleischmann pushed Lightning defender Matt Smaby (went down real easy) in front of the net, he hit goalie Karri Ramo as a result. Ramo certainly didn't suffer any injury, as he made several incredibly quick saves throughout the night. Our guy, Huet was very sharp as well. Ramo was far busier in the first though, as Washington outshot Tampa Bay 20-5. At 12:01, Alex Ovechkin scored his 64th goal of the season. He took a Viktor Kozlov rebound and banked it off a defender into the net. With that, he surpassed "Lucky" Luc Robitaille for the NHL record on goals scored in a season by a left wing.
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About five minutes into the second period, it looked like Tampa Bay might even up the score. Huet left a juicy rebound in front of Martin StLouis, but Mike Green quickly cleared the puck before Marty could do any harm. Both goalies guarded their goals very well in the second. They didn't see a huge number of shots, but they had to make a couple difficult saves. About a minute before the end of the period, Ovechkin blocked a hard shot with his right knee. He went to the dressing room before the horn, but returned at the start of the third period.
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Washington outshot Tampa Bay again in the third. But, Huet still had to come up with some good saves, including a big one on Vinny Lecavalier 50 seconds into the period that left Vinny shaking his head. Lecavalier was injured later on, after a collision with Caps' Matt Cooke that sent him into Michel Ouellet before he went down, landing on his left wrist. I was glad to hear the applause from the crowd for Vinny as he went off the ice, holding his wrist. He did not return, and it looked like his injury might be fairly serious. Retaliation was swift, coming in the form of a crosscheck from Jussi Jokinen at 7:26. This stupid move would not be the last in the game from the Lightning. Alex Ovechkin fought back in a much better manner 24 seconds later. Taking a cross ice pass from Green just inside the blue line, Ovie sent a long range shot past Ramo's blocker side for number 65 and the game winning power play goal. It was his 22nd power play goal of the season, tying the team record held by former Capital Peter Bondra. The familiar M-V-P chant once again came from the crowd.
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About a minute later, celebrations were temporarily put on hold. The Cap's ended up having to kill off a four minute double minor, thanks to a high stick by John Erskine that left blood streaming from Kuba's nose. Washington had very little trouble burning up the Lightning PP, sending several clearings almost the full length of the ice. Sure, the referees didn't exactly call the game perfectly. But, at 14:00 Smaby was sent to the box for holding. He was upset about the crappy way the season was coming to an end for his lousy team. If he needed to be comforted so badly, he could've at least picked one of his own teammates for the hug. For his unfortunate choice, the result was Boyd Gordon sending a Matt Bradley rebound into the back of the net. With Ramo pulled for the extra Lightning skater a couple minutes later, it was time for Tom Poti to send in an empty netter from deep in the Washington end of the ice. With 22.9 seconds left in the game, Tampa Bay went a little crazy. They had too many "men" on the ice completely intentionally. They tried to pick fights all over the ice. It's been suggested that they might be rewarded for their efforts with fines tomorrow, but I doubt it. Junior Lessard did get the fight he thought he wanted from Bradley. Of course, that turned out to be a big mistake. Brads made a complete fool of the witless wonder, with about 16 seconds left on the clock. Brilliant!
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Right after the game, Comcast SportsNet's Lisa Hillary did a short interview with Alex Ovechkin rinkside. He thanked the fans for all their support. The fans thanked Alex and the Cap's right back with some more loud cheers. Having the NHL's fifth best powerplay didn't help the Lightning in this game. Unfortunately, the Ottawa Senators didn't help Washington tonight either, as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 8-2. Don't give up hope Cap's fans. The season's not over yet. Washington's last game is Saturday, against the Florida Panthers. If they win, they still have a couple chances to make the playoffs. What are the chances that both the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers will win both of their last two games? Have a little faith!
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All Photos - Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP
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