Ovechkin Does It All Against Predators

Against a team stuggling to score goals, the Capitals had only one player put the puck in the net against Nashville Saturday night.

But fortunately for Washington, it was enough.

Alexander Ovechkin staked the Capitals to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and after a mini-meltdown in the second period by Semyon Varlamov, Ovechkin finished the job with the only goal in the shootout for a 3-2 victory over the Predators.

The victory gives the Capitals their second straight win, and gives them a boost heading into a four-day break before they hit the ice again in Atlanta Thursday night. The Caps almost let the downtrodden Predators grab a victory with a less-than-stellar 45 minutes following a solid first period, but Ovechkin's heroics were enough to give the home team the extra point.

Ovechkin began the scoring just 5:27 into regulation, as he scored a power-play goal by slamming home a cross-ice feed from Mike Green for his eighth goal in eight games, with Mike Knuble getting the secondary helper.

The two-time Hart winner then put himself ahead of the goal-per-game pace by taking a Brendan Morrison feed in on Nashville goaltender Dan Ellis and then beat him through the pads with a soft shot for a 2-0 lead with just 1:45 remaining in the first period.

However, despite some struggles by Ellis, that was the last goal he allowed until the shootout, and a brief flurry by Nashville allowed the Predators to draw even in the second period.

With just 5:01 left in the middle frame, Shea Weber rocketed a shot under the crossbar to cut the Capitals lead in half. Then, Varlamov allowed a very soft tally to J.P. Dumont just 1:35 later, as he allowed a shot from along the goal line in the corner to get past to even the score at 2-2.

The Predators scored as many goals in 95 seconds as they had in their previous 240 minutes of action, and energized by the rare scoring outburst, Nashville flashed new life after being very flat through the first 34 minutes of the contest.

Mike Green took a penalty late in the second period, but a Predators unit that came into the game at just a five percent clip couldn't put another one past Varlamov to keep the score even after 40 minutes.

The third period started out slowly, but the Preds got a good chance to take the lead when Nicklas Backstrom was called for a hook in the offensive zone halfway through the frame, but once again, the Caps were able to drop Nashville's success rate to just 1-for-24 on the season, a league-worst 4.2 percent.

Knuble had a pair of chances to win the game in the dying minutes regulation, as he couldn't connect on a cross-ice feed and then missed a golden chance in close on his next shift, but both teams earned a point and the game went into a strange overtime session.

Unlike most East-West overtimes where the two teams open up the action, both teams were very tenative, with just one shot on goal total in the exta session.

That brought up Washington's second shootout in the last three games, and Backstrom couldn't get the puck past Ellis in Washington's first attempt. Steve Sullivan missed the net on Nashville's first shot, and then Ovechkin capped his evening by beating Ellis for the lone shootout tally.

Ovechkin's goal was followed by a strange scene where dozens of fans threw hats on the ice mistakenly thinking it counted as a hat trick, and delaying the Predators' second shooter, David Legwand.

However, Varlamov took advantage of the break, causing Legwand to shoot wide. Brendan Morrison had a chance to finish the game with Washington's third shot, but was stopped on the backhand. But Varlamov helped wrap up the extra point by stuffing Martin Erat's wrist shot for the 3-2 win.

Washington certainly was fortunate not to allow a slumping Predators team to steal a victory after dominating them early on, and Varlamov's nasty habit of letting in goals in bunches continued with the brief flurry in the second period.

But, the Capitals did get the two points to move to 4-2-2 on the campaign heading into their first divisional clash of the season Thursday against the Thrashers, thanks to their superstar giving them all the goals they needed on the evening.