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Justin Williams scores in overtime to lift Capitals over Islanders, 3-2 Justin Williams scores in overtime to lift Capitals over Islanders, 3-2
(about 1 hour later)
NEW YORK — Barclays Center announced that only a minute remained in the overtime period just before Justin Williams started winding his stick back. He fired, slamming the puck past goaltender Thomas Greiss. With that, the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders, 3-2, a third win against their Metropolitan Division rival this season. NEW YORK — Washington Capitals Coach Barry Trotz had seen a change for the worse in the way his team had been playing. Even with the Capitals nursing a comfortable lead in the Eastern Conference and continuing to win, Trotz was tired of watching them stumble through games.
Alex Ovechkin’s two second-period goals gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead entering the third period, and after failing to convert on power-play chances, Washington was clinging to the one-goal lead as the third period wound down. With goaltender Braden Holtby screened, Frans Nielson scored the equalizer with less than two minutes left in regulation. Trotz shuffled his top two forward lines, altering them for the first time in more than a month. The new combinations had the desired effect as the Capitals beat the New York Islanders in overtime, 3-2, at Barclays Center in what the team felt was one of its most complete games since the all-star break.
To that point, Capitals Coach Barry Trotz’s experiment with shuffling the top-six forwards appeared to be working. Washington outshot New York, 33-21, in regulation. He flipped Ovechkin and Andre Burakovsky, putting Ovechkin on a line Evgeny Kuznetsov and Williams. That created a trio of Burakovsky, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie. “I liked a lot in that game,” Trotz said with a smile. “I thought especially through the first 40 minutes, we gave them virtually nothing.”
The move was initially curious, as Kuznetsov, Williams and Burakovsky had been the team’s best line of late; Burakovsky was especially hot with 17 points in his past 15 games. But Trotz had been critical of the team’s recent play, particularly the rash of turnovers against Dallas last weekend and then the poor start against Los Angeles on Tuesday. The trio of Backstrom, Ovechkin and Oshie had been quiet at even strength. The only negative was Washington’s inability to pull away once it got the lead. Before the game, Trotz had been critical of the Capitals’ recent play, concerned that he’d seen a certain sharpness disappear. There was the rash of turnovers in a loss to the Dallas Stars last weekend. Against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, good goaltending rescued two poor periods by Washington.
Ovechkin and Kuznetsov started the season playing together, and it didn’t take long for them to rediscover their chemistry. John Tavares scored to put Washington down, 1-0, after the first period, but the Capitals recovered in the first three minutes after intermission. [Tom Wilson growing into a greater role for Capitals]
With Ovechkin posted at the side of the net, Kuznetsov skated behind it, then spun, shooting the puck to Ovechkin for an easy swat into the net 1 minute 25 seconds into the period. Cal Clutterbuck got called for boarding Dmitry Orlov less than a minute later, which put Washington on the power play. The power play entered the game in a slump. Practices weren’t as crisp. Trotz sensed his team falling into a February lull. So the coach flipped Alex Ovechkin and Andre Burakovsky, putting Ovechkin on a line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Justin Williams. That created a trio of Burakovsky, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.
The Capitals entered the game in a man-advantage slump, scoring on just three of their last 31 power-play chances. The power play particularly struggled with zone entries in its first-period opportunity, often unable to get into its formation. In the second period, Washington was able to skate the puck into the offensive zone, and Ovechkin scored his second goal in three minutes with a wrist shot in transition. The result: Ovechkin scored two goals, and Williams scored the overtime winner. Trotz said the lines will hold for at least one more game. Washington outshot New York, 33-21, in regulation.
Last Thursday, Ovechkin scored three goals in the second period against the Minnesota Wild for his first hat trick since December 2013, when he scored four goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. When the Capitals got nearly a minute of two-man advantage hockey, Ovechkin wasn’t gun shy, angling for the hat trick. He had two shots on goal and missed on a third attempt. “You’ve got a line that’s a marriage and, sometimes, the love goes out of the marriage a little bit,” Trotz said. “You get it separated a little bit. You get a little vacation from each other.”
More significantly for the Capitals, they came up empty on 58 seconds of five-on-three hockey, uncharacteristic for a power play that’s been the league’s best most of the season. A power play with about nine minutes left in the game could have been a death blow to New York, as Washington would have had two-goal cushion, but the Capitals again couldn’t capitalize. Before the game, Trotz said individual execution has been plaguing the man-advantage. Ovechkin’s two second-period goals gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead entering the final period, and after failing to convert on power-play chances, Washington was clinging to the one-goal lead as the period wound down. With goaltender Braden Holtby screened, Frans Nielsen scored the equalizer with less than two minutes left in regulation.
“When one fails, we all fail,” Trotz said. “Probably every game if you talk to the staff, we’ve had one or two guys that haven’t been as sharp as we’ve needed to be. It sort of falls apart from there. Just a little bit of sharpness in that and a little bit of execution. . . . A short while later, just as the PA announcer noted one minute remained in overtime,
“They’re getting some looks. Sometimes, it goes in ebbs and flows. Lately, the last couple of games, it’s just been one guy it seems on each unit that’s been off a little bit, and it’s affected the rest. We’ve got a good coaching staff, and they get it straightened away all of the time. I’m very confident the power play is always dangerous.” Williams started winding his stick back. He fired, slamming the puck past goaltender Thomas Greiss with 44 seconds left.
“I thought we played a real strong game,” Williams said. “We’ve been seeing our game slip lately, and certainly, it’s not all the way back to where it needs to be, but we did a lot of good things tonight. We need to keep having the puck a lot more and lessening the opportunities that the other team has. I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
[Boswell: These aren’t your same old Capitals. No, really.]
The Capitals entered the game in a man-advantage slump, scoring on just three of their previous 31 power-play chances. The power play particularly struggled with zone entries in its first-period opportunity, often unable to get into its formation. In the second period, Washington was able to skate the puck into the offensive zone, and Ovechkin scored his second goal in three minutes with a wrist shot in transition.
But later in the period, the Capitals came up empty on 58 seconds of five-on-three hockey, uncharacteristic for a power play that’s been the league’s best most of the season. A power play with about nine minutes left in the game could have been a death blow to New York, as Washington would have had two-goal cushion, but it again couldn’t capitalize.
“Five-on-three, you have to score goals all of the time,” Ovechkin said. “It doesn’t matter who takes the shot; you just have to put it in because that’s an opportunity that you have.”
It wasn’t perfect, but an encouraging sign for Trotz was that it was better.
“We talked about the last little while, we haven’t been really playing the right way,” Trotz said. “Our decisions with the puck — we weren’t securing the puck and keeping the puck in the right areas. Our decisions in some of the areas were a little bit off. When they’re off, you’re not playing the right way and you’re not playing winning hockey. We talked about that, and we said, ‘Let’s get back to what we do and how we do it.’ ”