..
Alexander Ovechkin overpowered the
Montreal Canadiens, and led the
Washington Capitals to an amazing overtime win. The Canadiens and their goalie
Cristobal Huet won't be able to stop thinking about Alex for a few days. Ovechkin scored 4 goals and 1 assist in the last of the season series against the Habs. He now leads the league in both goals (43) and points (70). He indured a puck to the face, broken nose and a busted lip, and they still couldn't stop him. He's was like the
Terminator.
.
The game started off with Ovechkin getting accidentally hit in the face by the stick of
Alexei Kovalev. He checked his sore jaw and made sure he hadn't lost any more teeth, while on the bench awaiting his next shift. Ovie was obviously fine, as he made a big open ice hit on
Steve Begin a little while later. The two teams exchanged a couple minor penalties, including..............Yep, you guessed it........a hooking call on
Alexander Semin. Alex Ovechkin and
Milan Jurcina exchanged a couple rink wide passes, before Ovie one timed his 40th goal of the season, putting the Cap's on the scoreboard first.
Olie Kolzig was looking good and quick in net during the first period, making a few really nice saves.
.
About 4 1/2 minutes into the second period,
Viktor Kozlov tipped in a pass from Ovechkin. Washington had a 2-0 lead. It was a very physical game. Plenty of hits, and some pushing and shoving throughout. Nobody hitting any better than Ovechkin. However, toward the middle of the game,
Francis Bouillon bloodied Alex's nose on a rather hard hit of his own. But, no worries. At 11:54, Ovechkin sent a short side wrister to the back of the net. His second goal of the game, brought the Cap's to their biggest lead of the game. But, just under a minute later,
Sergei Kostitsyn finally put the Canadiens on the board, tipping in an oddly deflected pass. Washington's defenceman
Mike Green was called for tripping late in the period. With Green still in the penalty box,
Andrei Kostitsyn got the Power Play goal, bringing Montreal within one.
.
The rough stuff continued in the third, with Ovie putting another big hit on Josh Gorges early on. Then, Alex sent a shot between a defender's legs and over the shoulder of Huet for his 4th career Hat Trick at 12:30. Already leading the league in goals, this one put him on top in points as well. But, about a minute later Guillaume Latendresse put the Canadiens back within one again, scoring his 13th of the season. Netminder Olie Kolzig did his best to keep the lead, as he made a few more excellent saves. However, with less than 33 seconds left and Kolzig (and pretty much everybody else) thinking he had the puck under his body, no whistle! Apparently, the ref on the scene had better eyes than any other ref in history. We all had to see the slow motion overhead taped replay before we could pick it out. But, this guy noticed the puck wasn't quite covered up and let Latendresse poke the puck through and into the net for his second of the game. Tied at 4-4, we would need overtime.
.
The crowd sure got their money's worth. At 3:34 in OT, Alexander Ovechkin tipped in a rebound for the game winner. That's four goals and an assist in the game for Alex. It was the second time in his career that he scored four goals in one game, the first time coming earlier this season. It was also his second five point game of this season as well. The only other Cap to ever get 40 or more goals in three consecutive seasons was the great
Peter Bondra. I'm pretty sure that Ovechkin will prove to be the greatest Washington Capital of all. There was some good work in this game by Kolzig, Milan Jurcina, Mike Green and others. But as usual, Ovie steals the show.
.
All Photos - AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta
.
No comments:
Post a Comment