Whew

Dump 'n Chase, Oct. 17, 2008: "The Caps have come from behind in all three of their wins. Even in their lone loss, they came back from a three-goal deficit to tie the score."

AP, Oct. 24, 2008: "Washington has carried a lead into the third period in two of its last three games and has lost both."

The Stars have scored first, the Caps have came from behind...

Ok...

Washington has carried a lead into the third period in three of its last three games and has won...

We got the original trend going on tonight... :-)

GOAL SCORERS

Washington: Fedorov, S. (PPG, 12:38 in 1st), Fleischmann, T. (16:58 in 1st), Fedorov, S. (11:23 in 2nd), Fleischmann, T. (15:16 in 2nd), Sloan, T. (02:22 in 3rd), Semin, A. (02:17 in OT)

Dallas: Avery, S. (10:19 in 1st), Brunnstrom, F. (PPG, 19:50 in 1st), Crombeen, B. (15:55 in 2nd), Eriksson, L. (00:56 in 3rd), Modano, M. (19:03 in 3rd) GOALIES
WSH: J. Theodore DAL: M. Turco


By Gregg Kanner, The Hockey News, Oct. 25, 2008:

It's not often you can call a 6-5 game a goaltending duel, but that's exactly what it was in Dallas on Saturday night. The Capitals won a wild affair in overtime on Alex Semin's sick top shelf wrister from the circle.

You might look at the score and think it was a bad night for the goalies, but that was far from the case. Both Jose Theodore and Marty Turco may have had goals they would have liked back, but they both stood on their heads and made some amazing stops that kept their respective teams in the game.

Both defenses were horrible. Hideous. The Caps really have a problem on their hands if they don't start stepping it up on D. I realize Bruce Boudreau's style is an aggressive offensive swarm and there will be some breakdowns and some odd-man rushes, but they were outworked in the corners in the defensive zone for the 3rd straight game and gave up tons of quality scoring chances. If not for the pourous Stars defense, this one might have been ugly for Washington.

As it was, the Caps scored 6 goals and could have scored 10. Congrats to Sergei Fedorov on his two goals, the first making him the top Russian goal scorer in the history of the NHL. Another strong outing was turned in by Tomas Fleischmann, who is thriving on the same line with Michael Nylander. Flash scored twice and had two other opportunities go off the goalpost. Tyler Sloan scored his first NHL goal in the 3rd period to give the Caps a 5-4 lead, but his defensive play was average again. I like the guy and like his toughness and energy, but we would be much better off if we had Tom Poti back or if we give Karl Alzner a try.

Semin was swarming all night long as well and he finally was able to get one of his wicked shots off in the OT. It was another scoreless night for Alex Ovechkin, but he looked a lot more like the Ovie of old and did not seem as frustrated as he had been the past 3 games. Ovie's presence on the ice helps open things up for the rest of the team and they capitalized on those chances against the Stars.

This was a HUGE win for the Caps after two miserable losses during the week. They still have a lot of work to do in their own zone, but having two days off before being back at home on Tuesday night should give them time to work on some things.

I'm thrilled to see them pull out the win and to avoid a 3rd straight regulation loss. Let's just shore up that blueline and wait for the rest of the offense to get hot.