Written by Daniel F. Epstein
Friday, 13 November 2009

Chris Clark scored during the shoot out to give the Capitals a 5-4 victory over the visiting New York Islander during a NHL game at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. Alan P. Santos/DC Sports Box file photoWASHINGTON, D.C. – It seems like the Washington Capitals play the New York Islanders every other game recently. All the games have been competitive and Wednesday Night was no different. The Islanders took Washington all the way to a shootout but Chris Clark ended the game with a goal to give the Caps a 5-4 victory.


The injury situation for the Capitals is slowly improving. Alexander Ovechkin said that he is questionable for this weekend’s games, leaving open the possibility that he may make an appearance. He has been out for almost two weeks with an upper body injury, specifically his left shoulder. The return of Mike Green on defense is a welcome addition for Coach Bruce Boudreau coming off an upper body injury suffered Friday Night versus the Florida Panthers. Although Green will make his return, Jeff Schultz is still out with a lower body injury and Boyd Gordon is even closer to returning from his rib injury after participating in practice. For the Islanders, Captain and lead Dough Weight is out for approximately 4-6 weeks with an upper body injury and Kyle Okposo was sent back to New York with a diagnosed case of H1N1.

The game began at a blistering pace, not in favor of the home-standing Capitals. Although true, eight seconds into the game, after Brendan Morrison lost the opening face-off, he stole a pass from an Islanders defenseman and fed a streaking Alexander Semin who ripped a slap shot over the shoulder of Dwayne Roloson for the first goal of the game. Roloson never had a chance as Semin released the shot from the middle of the face-off circle. Commenting on the first goal Semin said, “It felt nice. It’s your first shift and you score a goal. It felt nice.”

Only 54 seconds later, Capitals goaltender Jose Theodore deflected a Mark Streit shot directly to Matt Moulson on the other side of the net and he put the puck in the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. The net was wide open on the Moulson goal and Streit received the only assist on the play.

Alexander Semin had a chance to return the lead to Washington on a fancy “curl and drag” move in front of the net but misses a wide open backhand over the cage. If Semin had been able to deliver the puck on net, Roloson would have been beat. After the missed opportunity, the Islanders wasted little time as Mark Streit ripped home a slap shot that Theodore never saw to give New York a 2-1 lead. It was Streit’s second point of the night and fourth in three games versus the Caps. All of the scoring occurred before the five minute mark of the period.

When the game had just begun to seem settled, a Capitals turnover led to a breakaway by Sean Bergenheim and he made no mistake with the result depositing the puck in the back of the net to give the Islanders a 3-1 lead. The unassisted goal prompted Bruce Boudreau to remove Theodore from the game and insert Semyon Varlamov. After the game Boudreau noted, “I don’t like to do that, especially so early. He looked a little rattled and he looked a little down. It’s not like pulling him when the game is out of reach, we had so much time left.”


With the crowd rallying behind the home team even after their slow start, the Capitals were able to maintain a minute of puck possession and drew a Jon Sim holding penalty. On the power-play, Nicklas Backstrom fed a streaking Tomas Fleischmann headed towards the right post and Fleischmann shot the puck through a crowd and it ended up in the back of the Islander’s net to reduce the New York lead to 3-2. Mike Knuble also received an assist on the power-play goal which was Fleischmann’s sixth of the season.

The defenses and goaltending eventually caught up to the offense at the end of the period and both teams were held scoreless giving the Islanders a 3-2 advantage headed to the locker room. The Caps actually outshot the Islanders 13-12 in the first period.

Down 3-2 after the first period, Washington capitalized on an early New York penalty and Alexander Semin scored his second goal of the game of a terrific pass from D Mike Green to tie the score at 3-3. It was Semin’s first goals in six games and a good building block for the superstar. Eric Fehr decided also to chip in on the action late in the second period when he scored a goal from Chris Clark and Mike Green to give Washington a 4-3 lead at the end of the second period. The Caps dominated the second period and outshot the Islanders 14-8 in that stanza.

The Capitals looked like they were going to be able to maintain a third period lead and win the contest until bad penalties were again as issue for the squad. There were two consecutive penalties committed by Washington late in the third period and finally Trent Hunter, returning from an absence, ripped home a slap shot over Varlamov’s shoulder to tie the game at 5-5. The Hunter goal proved to be enough to send the contest to overtime. Commenting on getting at least one point in the contest, Hunter noted, “It definitely wasn’t a second period that we were proud of; we weren’t skating. They’re a good team, they took advantage of it. I think for us to battle back and get that point is huge for us.”

Overtime provided very little opportunity for both teams and goaltenders Dewayne Roloson and Semyon Varlamov prepared for the shootout which would decide the contest. The goaltenders each played terrifically and the game went to the 11th round of the shootout when Chris Clark finally scored the game winning goal to propel Washington to the 5-4 victory. On the play of the goaltenders, Islanders forward Trent Hunter mentioned, “They played unbelievable. Whenever you go that far into your bench in a shootout, you know the goalies are playing well. I guess eventually someone’s got to crack, but [Islanders goaltender Dwayne Roloson] gave us every opportunity to win that game and sometimes they just don’t go in for you.”

The Washington Capitals will play again on Friday Night when they take on the struggling Minnesota Wild at the Verizon Center at 7 pm. They will then go to New Jersey to play the Devils for the second time in ten days on Saturday Night. The New York Islanders are starting a seven game road-trip.