Caps 1, Penguins 0
They are a different team at Verizon Center than on the road. The Capitals improved to 15-5-1 in the District – and 7-1 in their last eight home games - by holding off the rival Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night. But they are 7-12-1 away from the friendly confines, where their special teams deserts them and wins are excruciatingly hard to come by.
Washington can worry about that later. It earned the win over the Penguins - check out our game story here - and now has three in a row at home against the three worst teams in the Eastern Conference halfway through this NHL season (Tampa Bay, New York Islanders, Carolina). All will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back. It is the perfect chance for the Caps (22-17-2, 46 points) to make up ground in the conference and Southeast Division races. With one game left in hand they trail the Florida Panthers (21-13-8, 50 points) by four points in the standings. Washington jumped the Penguins (21-17-4, 46 points) to take over as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference and for a moment hopped Winnipeg (20-17-5, 45 points) for second place in the division.
Jason Chimera scored goal No. 14. He had last tallied Dec. 23 against New Jersey. That broke a tie with the injured Nicklas Backstrom and Chimera now trails only Alex Ovechkin (17 goals) in goals on the season.
Why so good at home? We’ve long talked about Washington’s putrid special teams play away from Verizon Center. Well, it has killed off its last 26 penalties at home (26-for-26). Even better – the Caps didn’t need to do so on Wednesday. They didn’t take a single penalty.
Nice night for Jeff Halpern, who won 10 of 12 faceoffs and had that sweet assist on Chimera’s goal, quickly sending a pass from the right boards to the center of the ice to create a breakaway chance on Marc-Andre Fleury. Halpern’s last point was Dec. 28 against the New York Rangers.
Ovechkin again had some jump in is game. Late in the first period (17:15) he destroyed Penguins forward Craig Adams with a monster hit along the boards in front of the Pittsburgh bench.
"Ovi put that guy into the stands in that first period. That was pretty cool to see," defenseman Karl Alzner said. "But that’s what we need to do. We got to be like that against every team. It wears them down. We know from experience that it sucks getting hit. And that’s what we’re trying to lean towards – not just Ovi and not just [forward Troy] Brouwer, but everybody."
Washington was credited with 39 hits in the game and Pittsburgh another 40 as both teams were intent on imposing their will on the other. Still not sure how Ovechkin didn’t score at 10:18 of the third period. He drove up the left wing, got deep on Penguins defenseman Paul Martin and cut towards the middle far lower than he normally does – at the left faceoff circle. Puck went past Fleury and right through the crease somehow sneaking through without sliding into the goal. Ovechkin led the Caps with four shots on goal and three hits total.
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