A win is a win

The losing streak finally came to an end last night against the Pens. From my perspective, it was a long time coming. It was great to see it go down the way it did. Olie started in net, much to my chagrin, and had a devilish save percentage of .666 (10 saves on 15 shots). Thank God Dany Sabourin had a similar save percentage of .692 before being pulled.

After falling behind in the third period, Viktor Kozlov scored a beautiful power play goal on a great feed from Matt Pettinger to tie things up. The Caps had a few good chances down the stretch but could not get the go ahead goal. In overtime, the Caps essentially played the entire session shorthanded and a good portion of it down two men. The penalty kill unit did a great job and Quintin Laing blocked three shots to send the game to a shootout. It was interesting to see Alex Ovechkin race to the bench as the overtime session came to an end to give a helmet rub to all of the penalty killers. It says a lot about his leadership and certainly shows that he understands and appreciates what the other players contribute to the team.

The Caps won the shootout 2-1 on pretty moves by Ovechkin and Alexander Semin. Olie got lucky in my opinion during the shootout, as the first shooter missed the net, the second chance rang off the crossbar (Olie was clearly beat) and Jarkko Ruutu made Olie look completely silly. However, two points are all that matter right now. With the win, the Caps moved into second place in the Southeast Division and remain three points behind Carolina with three games in hand. The Caps are also three points out of the eighth spot in the Conference standings.

Next up for the Caps is a home and home series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hey Bruce, please start Brent Johnson in net. I also need to recognize Nicklas Backstrom who had back to back four assist games. He is the first rookie in NHL history to accomplish this feat.