Donald Brashear celebrates winning goal with David Steckel nearby.
Islanders 2 - Capitals 5
Last night's win versus the New York Islanders was a first for both Washington Capitals' goaltender Brent Johnson and head coach Bruce Boudreau. This game also marked the debut of the AHL's current leading scorer Keith Aucoin as a Capital. Right winger Graham Mink was sent back down to the Hershey Bears, making room for center Aucoin to be called up to the NHL.
There have been players coming and going between the Caps and the Bears while several regular players remain on the injured list. Meanwhile, the Islanders have been facing similar health issues. With Rick DePietro injured after only three games this season, Joey MacDonald (39th NHL game) was between the pipes for New York, with Yann Danis as the backup. With the loss in his first game facing Washington, MacDonald's record fell to 10-10-2. He was named the NHL's Third Star for November 2008 though, going 8-5-1 with a 2.64 goals against average and a .916 save percentage. MacDonald looked sharp for most of this game, even though four shots (fifth was empty net) got by him.
Although he would later on miss some of the first period after a collision, it was Alex Ovechkin (NHL's First Star for November) who scored the first goal of the game at 11:31, during a power play. The Isles left him all alone, and he snapped one in from the left face off dot. Less than two minutes later, Viktor Kozlov deflected in a Bryan Helmer slapshot for another PPG. Sami Lepisto set up Helmer for his shot, earning Lepisto his fourth assist in five games played. At 19:24, New York cut the lead back to one with a power play goal of their own, when Mark Streit scored with Brent Johnson heavily screened.
About a third of the way through the second period, a couple weird events occured. First a Chris Campoli slapshot from the neutral zone deflected into the Caps' net off of a linesman, so it didn't count as a goal. Shortly after, the puck deflected off of Kozlov's skate in Washington's end, sending it all the way to the far end of the ice. The puck barely missed the empty net, while the Isles had an extra attacker on the ice. At 13:38, a very open Trent Hunter scored the first non PP goal of the game for New York, knotting the game at 2-2.
Eric Fehr and Brooks Laich celebrate Fehr's goal.
Rookie defenseman Karl Alzner recorded his first NHL point in the third period, with a very intelligent play that earned him an assist. Milan Jurcina sent the puck across the offensive zone ice to Alzner. With no passing or shooting lanes open, he elected to intentionally bank the puck off the end boards. Donald Brashear gained control of the puck and sent a soft backhand shot in for what later turned out to be the game winning goal. It was Brashear's first regular season goal since March 3, 2008. The Caps weren't done scoring yet. Eric Fehr backhanded the puck past MacDonald from a sharp angle during a power play at 16:14, while following up on Brooks Laich's attempt to bang in a rebound from Ovechkin's long range blast. As with Jurcina, Laich's third period assist was his second of the game. Laich and Jurcina had also assisted on Ovie's first period goal. Alex gained his second assist of the evening on the games' fifth and final goal. He grabbed the rebound from a shot on Washington's goal and skated the puck all the way into the offensive zone. Ovechkin passed the puck to Nicklas Backstrom, who had joined him in a two on one drive. Backstrom recorded his seventh goal of the season, when he sent the puck into the empty net with 49.8 seconds left on the clock.
Unlike a lot of games so far this season, the Caps power play worked well in this one, as they potted three. Like in a lot of games though, Ovechkin had another multi-point effort, with one goal and two assists. Viktor Kozlov was hard worker, creating scoring chances throughout the game. Washington shouldn't be proud of their nine penalties. But their penalty killing, secondary scoring and Brent Johnson's massive 47 saves, helped them overcome their mistakes to defeat the New York Islanders for the first time in a long while. The Caps needed a win, and they got it with an aggressive and relentless team effort.
December 4, 2008 Photos by Nick Wass / Associated Press
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