CAPS SNAP ELLIOTT’S STREAK
Flames goalie’s first loss in 12 games
The Washington Capitals were the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot and it didn’t take long for the Calgary Flames to realize why.
The Capitals scored two goals in the second period to take a 3-1 lead and Alex Ovechkin punctuated the 4-2 victory by ripping a rocket of a shot on the power play with 2:51 remaining in the final frame.
Deryk Engelland and Troy Brouwer teamed up to cut the Capitals’ lead to one goal with 4:56 remaining in the third period but they simply couldn’t contain No. 8, who entered the game with 20 points (nine goals and 11 assists) in 13 career games against Calgary.
“It’s no different than the guys on our team when they’re feeling it,” Brouwer said. “When you have those guys with that much skill and that much confidence, it’s a dangerous combination.”
The loss ended the incredible run of Flames netminder Brian Elliott, who had his personal 11game win streak snapped, leaving him tied with Mike Vernon for the longest streak in franchise history. The last time Elliott had an L tagged to his name was Feb. 18 in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
Elliott, according to the opposition, made the Capitals work for it.
“There’s something different about goaltenders when they get hot,” Capitals forward T.J. Oshie said of his former St. Louis Blues teammate Elliott. “They have some switch up there that they’re going to stop everything. Ells, I’ve seen him have it a lot more times than once. You’ve got to find different ways to score, whether it’s through shot passes or rebounds or whatever it is.
“I think we did a good job working for those goals tonight.
This loss can’t be tagged on the Flames goalie, who faced 40 shots — 11 of which were from Ovechkin.
“Right from the get-go, they came at us,” Elliott said. “They had a lot of good chances, they carry the puck across the line. It seemed like we were just getting stuff from the outside, shovels at the net, and trying to create something in the O-zone.
“It’s disappointing to lose, but we’ll be over it.”
The Capitals tested Elliott right off the hop; a tone-setting dynamic rush from Evgeny Kuznetsov as the Flames ran around for most of the first period.
Johnny Gaudreau committed a critical turnover at centre ice, a gaffe that cost the Flames the opening goal from Kuznetsov at 6:47.
Just 3:19 later, No. 13 and Sean Monahan hooked up on a 2-on-1 with Monahan scoring his 24th of the year.
In the second, the Flames ran into a red-hot Braden Holtby, who was playing his 300th NHL game.
Oshie finally broke the tie, scoring his 30th goal of the season on a perfect cross-ice feed from Ovechkin.
Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan was disappointed in the Flames’ special teams, which allowed two Capitals power-play markers on three opportunities and didn’t score on Calgary’s lone power play.
“We needed our penalty kill to be better and it wasn’t, they got twofor-three,” he said. “It was pretty tight-checking.
"It was exciting because it was fast, but we didn’t get a ton of looks.”
In the final 20 seconds of the middle frame, Dougie Hamilton tried to prevent Ovechkin from scoring again and took a tripping penalty. Ovechkin wound up getting an assist on Kevin Shattenkirk’s goal to give the Capitals a two-goal lead with 2.9 seconds remaining; a wrister that banked off Oshie’s skate and squirted to Shattenkirk, who muscled it past Elliott.
“He’s (Elliott) never out of a play, and that’s something that you really admire about him,” said Shattenkirk, also a former Blues teammate of Elliott. “That’s what you have to do to beat him, you just have to stick with it.”
Recently, the Flames have had some tough tests. They beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in a shootout just last week, had won 10 straight, and are 17-3-1 in their last 20 games.
And while Washington headed into Tuesday’s game a sluggish 5-41 in its last 10, they’re still the Eastern Conference leaders (47-17-8) preparing for a deep playoff run.
“They’re a good team,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano, who was in the box serving a delay of game when Ovechkin scored the Caps’ fourth goal. “Big parts of that game, they were the better team. We had a big push going right at the end.
“We’ve gotta move on. We stuck with them but I thought they were the better team.”
Calgary (41-28-4) remains mired in the first wild-card spot in the West with 86 points, one behind the Anaheim Ducks (38-23-11) and Edmonton Oilers (39-24-9), who play each other Wednesday.
The Flames’ three-game road trip continues Thursday at Nashville and Saturday at St. Louis.
Big parts of that game, they were the better team. We’ve gotta move on. We stuck with them but I thought they were the better team.