Game #26 Recap: Caps 4 St. Louis 1

The Capitals fought through some frightful ice conditions and came away with a 4-1 victory. Semyon Varlamov was excellent in net as he stopped 37 of 38 shots including several highlight reel stops. The Caps started a bit slowly but got on the board first period when Brooks Laich put a rebound past St. Louis goaltender Jaroslav Halak while Washington was on the power play. I am sure the play was pass from Nicklas Backstrom but Halak deflected the puck and Laich corralled the puck and put her home. In the second, the Caps went up 2-0 when Boyd Gordon scored on a funky bounce off the goaltender and a defensemen and into the net. It was the first goal of the season for Gordon. St. Louis came back to score in the last minute of the second period on a shot that Varly still hasn't seen. In the third period, the Capitals increased the lead when Backstrom put away a rebound from a Mike Knuble shot and then deposited and empty netter off a nice setup from Alex Ovechkin. Varlamov held down the fort stopping all 15 shots he faced in the period. Washington now takes its four game winning streak to Dallas for the second half of back-to-back road games.

Of Note:

• Semyon Varlamov was the games #1 Star and improved his record to 4-1-0 with a 0.939 save percentage and a 1.79 goals against average. 
• Nicklas Backstrom had another 3-point night with two goals and an assist. That gives Backstrom 30 points on the season and puts him 6th overall in the NHL. However, he still trails Alex Ovechkin 33 points, 3rd overall and Alexander Semin 31 points, 4th overall for the team lead.
• Ovechkin and Semin both picked up assists in the game. D.J. King picked up his first point as a Capital when he and Tom Poti assisted on Boyd Gordon's game winner. Mike Knuble and John Carlson also picked up assists in the game.
• Washington continued to perform well in the face-off dot. They won 33 of 63 draws and have been at 50% or above for 13 straight games.
• The Capitals killed off all four power play attempts by the Blues and have allowed only 1 power play goal in 16 attempts during this current 4-game winning streak. The Caps converted 1 of 2 power plays against the Blues and in the same 4-game span has gone 4 for 11 with the extra man advantage. 
• Jeff Schultz was +1.

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