WASHINGTON—The Ducks pulled off a big one and broke another milestone. With a strong hand on the game and holding Washington to 19 shots, the Ducks broke away with a 3-2 win over the Capitals at the Verizon Center on Monday. Anaheim’s second line connected with goals from Andrew Cogliano and Saku Koivu to end the short break on a hearty note.
With Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau returning to his former team’s arena, the pressure was on the Capitals to gain an early lead and hold onto it shattering the Ducks hopes to mark a longstanding record. The Caps struck seven minutes into the first period with Mikhail Grabovski scoring on Troy Brouwer’s drive that tipped off the stick and gave him his 11th of the season.
Koivu put the Capitals on their second straight power play with a second consecutive hooking penalty from the Finn that set Washington’s lead further in motion. Nicklas Backstrom snapped a shot past Anaheim goalie, Jonas Hiller to give him the ninth of his year. Both teams were even on shots to the net, but the Ducks found time to cut Washington’s lead in half with a goal from Cogliano late in the period giving him his fifth point in four games.
The Ducks held on to their pace strongly through the second period with 11 shots on goal trading power plays with Washington going 0-5 on the man advantages for 40 minutes. It led to Anaheim evening up with Koivu scoring his fifth In the final minute of the period on Capitals goalie Phillipp Graubauer who made 26 saves in the night.
The pace of the game slowed down quite a bit as one was trying to get back on track, while the other was going as far as they could while things were positive. The Ducks controlled the puck possession in the third in what seemed to be the Capitals struggling to hang on and force overtime.
The chance came and went as first year defenseman Hampus Lindholm scored the third of his career on a wrist shot from the blue line that caught Grubauer off guard in heavy traffic for Anaheim to take the lead. The Ducks only took seven shots on the net, but it was enough to continue their march for the 17-game winning streak once brought on by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins. Given the Ducks have a new franchise record, a fight to be the league’s best seems to be far from over.
