Caps Roll Past Oilers for Sixth Straight Win

For the second time this season the Capitals have a after defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-0. Remarkably, this was the first time in the aforementioned winning streak where the Capitals scored first. As it turns out, the Capitals would only need that first goal as rookie Braden Holtby earned his first career shutout in only his 10th career game.

“It feels good,” said Holtby after the game. “It almost feels better just to get the win after coming off an emotional game in Tampa, just to come back and make sure our team played well and we did that tonight.”

The turning point of the game came early in the second period on a Washington power play. The Capitals hadn’t scored on a power play since Feb. 21 and at first it looked as if the team’s struggles with the extra man would continue as Edmonton’s Andrew Cogliano found himself on a breakaway. Holtby stayed with the puck and stopped Cogliano’s shot.

Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play a few seconds later. Jason Arnott made a great slap pass to Ovechkin at the side of the crease. It was Ovechkin who scored the last power play goal for the team and it was his first power play goal at home this season.

That goal started a flurry of milestones for the Capitals and some of the players. Arnott picked up his 900 career point with the assist.

Eric Fehr, playing in his first game back after missing 17 games with a shoulder injury, added another power play goal in the second period on a rebound of a John Carlson shot. Ovechkin picked up the assist to give him 600 points in his career, putting him in third place on the all-time franchise scoring leaders list.

“I think our power play finally worked, we scored two goals and we won the hockey game,” Ovechkin said. “I can’t remember scoring five goals in a game [recently]. It was a good night for us and a good night for the fans too.”

Ovechkin would add another goal when he stole the puck from an Edmonton player to create a two-on-none with Marcus Johansson, who was playing in place of Nicklas Backstrom. They passed the puck back-and-forth four times before Ovechkin put it past Edmonton goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.

One of the big stories going into the game was the absence of Backstrom. He was slashed in the hand on Feb. 21 and had been playing with a small fracture in his thumb. The team decided to sit him for a few games in order to let him properly heal. It was the first game he’s missed in his career after playing in a combined 341 games in the regular season and playoffs.

The Capitals finished off the night with another goal from Fehr and one from Alexander Semin. Fehr scored when Nikolai Khabibulin came out of the net to play the puck, but played it right to Washington’s Jason Chimera. He passed it to Fehr who easily put it in the open net.

Semin scored on a two-on-one with new Capital Marco Sturm. He flipped it over the sliding defender to Sturm, who passed it back to Semin. The Capitals are 17-0-0 when Semin scores this season.

The win puts the Caps in second place in the Eastern Conference. They play the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.

Additional Notes

-       Try to keep up here. Arnott scored his 900th point, Ovechkin scored his 600th point, and Dennis Wideman scored his 200th point. Ovechkin now only trails Mike Gartner (789) and Peter Bondra (825) for the all time lead in franchise scoring.

-       Alex Ovechkin is only the 10th player in NHL history to score 600 points in his first six seasons. He joins Paul Coffey, Denis Savard, Bryan Trottier, Dale Hawerchuk, Jari Kurri, Mike Bossy, Peter Stastny, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. He won’t be passing Gretzky though. The “Great One” had 1122 points in his first six seasons. That’s an average of 187 points a season.

-       Another flurry of first times. Tonight was the first time: the Capitals scored two power play goals since , they scored five goals at home since , they won six in a row since , Marco Sturm scored as a member of the Caps, and they won by more than one goal in 14 games.

-       The Capitals are 31-0-3 when scoring at least three goals.

-       Since being called up, Braden Holtby has been perfect. He recorded 21 saves in 45 minutes of relief work on Monday night in Tampa Bay and another three in the shootout to go with his 22 saves on Wednesday night.

-       Every Capital acquired during the trade deadline weekend (Marco Sturm, Dennis Wideman & Jason Arnott) had a point in this game. The team has not lost since acquiring Sturm on Saturday, Feb. 26th and the other two on the 28th.