Too Little, Too Late

The Capitals have now lost three straight in regulation for the first time in the Bruce Boudreau era. The Capitals waited until 14:43 of the third period to turn it up a notch. Through the first 55 minutes of the game they were flat. Matt Bradley found the net at 14:43, followed by Ovechkin at 16:07, and Nick Backstrom on the power-play at 18:16. Down 4-0 before Bradley's goal the Capitals surge was just too little too late. They were unable to find the net in the closing minute to tie it up, even with the goaltender pulled.

Jose Theodore played well again, stopping 29 of 33 shots. The story for the first 55 minutes, was the play of Niklas Backstrom, goaltender for the Wild. He stopped everything thrown his way, with a little help from his posts. His play is what kept the Caps from getting one early and turning it around. Special teams, as I had said in my previous post, played a pivotal role for the Wild. The Wild scored twice on six power-play opportunities and killed off two of three Caps power-plays. The Wild were lead by their rookie, Cal Clutterbuck, who scored his first two NHL goals against the Caps last night.

Go Caps!

-Bagasome
The Caps will travel home to DC to face the Atlanta Thrashers on Wednesday and the Montreal Canadians on Friday before hitting the road for Columbus on Saturday. The Caps will be looking to protect their home ice and extend their unbeaten streak at home in regulation this season to ten games.