Caps Beat Ducks in Anaheim, 6-4

The Washington Capitals started off the 4 game western road trip, scoring 3 goals in the first 7 minutes of play, on the way to a 6-4 win in Anaheim.

Even better, the Caps scored 6 goals from 6 different skaters, no multi-goal night for anyone. Talk about spreading the wealth. HC Bruce Boudreau said he wanted more scoring from other Lines and got it last night.
Tomas Fleischmann struck first, a little over two minutes into the game, on the Caps first power play, his 7th of the year, 6th on the road. To you Fleischmann critics out there, this was the year Tomas had to step up, and I think he has done just that, not just in scoring, but overall play. Fleischmann had great positioning right in front of Anaheim net minder Jonas Hiller, and deflected a strike from Mike Green to put the Capitals up 1-0. Less than 2 minutes later, Green would fire another strike out the power play, this time getting the goal credit and lifting the Capitals to a 2-0 lead and an impressive 2 for 2 on the power play in the first 5 minutes. A little over the 7 minute mark, Nicklas Backstrom would net his 3rd goal , a backhand shot from Victor Kozlov. That goal would chase Hiller from the net, replaced by Jean Sebastien-Giguere. Bobby Ryan and Ryan Getzlaf would score for Anaheim to end a high scoring first period and a Capitals 3-2 lead.
Caps out shot the Ducks 14-5 in the first period and went 2 for 4 on the power play. It was a high scoring and high penalized first period, the Ducks taking 4 penalties, Caps 3 penalties.
It was all Washington in the second period, scoring twice to the Ducks zero. Alexander Ovechkin netted the first one on a power play, a wicked slap shot, sneaking in to put it past Giguere. It was goal number 8 for Ovie and his fifth straight game with a goal. Ovechkin ended the game with an impressive 4 point night, adding thee helpers, and finished +1, bringing his overall rating to +18, the highest in the NHL.
Toward the end of the second period, Matt Bradley took a rebound from a Boyd Gordon shot, to score his second goal of the year and put the Caps up 5-2. Dave Steckel would wrap up the Capitals scoring on an ugly rebound, nabbing his 3rd goal of the year.
Washington out shot Anaheim 33-32. Anaheim has 11 penalties, Washington had 9. That likely did not please Boudreau. Caps were 3/11 on the power play and 8/9 on the penalty kill.
Jose Theodore recorded the win and stopped 28 of 32 shots.
Multi-point Scorers:
Mike Green, 1 goal, 1 assist
Michael Nylander, 2 assists
Alex Ovechkin, 1 goal, 3 assists
Dave Steckel, 1 goal, 1 assist
DCPSR Player of the Game:
Alexander Ovechkin, 1 goal, 3 assists, +1
Next Up:
Los Angeles, tonight at 10:30PM