Capitals Cool Off Valiquette, Rangers With Overtime Victory
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WASHINGTON — Mike Green scored a power-play goal 23 seconds into overtime, Olie Kolzig stopped 31 shots in his 700th career game and the Washington Capitals regained first place in the Southeast Division with a 3–2 victory over the Rangers
yesterday.
Green scored on a shot high above the circles after taking a centering pass from Alex Ovechkin. The shot came while New York’s Ryan Hollweg was off for tripping, a penalty that occurred with 34 seconds left in regulation. Ovechkin scored his NHL-high 47th goal of the season, compared to 46 in 2006–07, and had assists on Washington’s other two goals. He now has 80 points, three more than idle Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa.
It was the 296th victory of Kolzig’s career, tied with Ron Hextall for 23rd place on the career list. He has been in goal for 20 of Washington’s 27 wins this season.
The victory ended New York’s four-game road winning streak and enabled the Capitals to leapfrog Atlanta and Carolina into the top spot in the division.
Coming off two consecutive shutouts, against Philadelphia on January 31 and Saturday, Rangers goaltender Steve Valiquette started on a second straight day for the first time in his career. He stopped 21 shots, but was helpless against Green’s game-winning blast.
Chris Drury gave New York a 2–1 lead at 9:25 of the second period with a sensational shot, a turnaround wrister from the left circle that somehow found its way through the well-positioned Kolzig. It was the team-high 18th goal for Drury and his sixth in seven games.
The Capitals pulled even with 15 seconds left in the period when Boyd Gordon got hold of a rebound and flipped a backhander past a diving Valiquette.
New York had an opportunity late in the third period to break the deadlock when Kolzig accidentally sent a clearing pass over the glass for a delay of game penalty. But the Rangers failed to score and finished 0-for-6 on the power play. Any chance Valiquette had of recording a third straight shutout ended at 2:28 of the first period when Ovechkin scored his NHL-high 17th power-play goal, tapping in the rebound of a shot by Eric Fehr. The goal came after Valiquette was assessed a penalty for delay of game.
The Capitals had gone 0-for-18 with the extra man in their previous six games, including 0-for-7 in a loss to Carolina on Friday night. Sean Avery tied it at 7:02 of the period with a rising wrist shot from the right circle.
