The Wahington Capitals may have had to call up four players from the Capitals AHL affiliate to just fill the roster after being decimated by injuries, but thankfully for Caps fans none of those injured players were named Alex Ovechkin. He would provide all the offense the Capitals would need in their 5-2 victory on Wednesday night.
Ovechkin, who has scored more points against Atlanta than any other team, earned his sixth hat trick of his career. He scored two power play goals in the first period to set up Washington with a big lead early that Atlanta wasn’t able to overcome.
While allowing three Ovechkin goals the Thrashers defense did themselves no favors by taking four penalties in the first. As a result Atlanta put only four shots on goal in the first. That slow first period came just five days after Atlanta’s poor start in a shutout to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The lone bright spot was a goal from Brian Little, who scored a power play goal to bring Atlanta within one early in the first. Little benfitted from the hard work of Slava Kozlov and Ilya Kovalchuk who fought hard to keep the puck in the offensive zone. The goal was Little’s 10th of the year.
A goal by Slava Kozlov in the second would cut the Washington lead to two in the second, but that two number was the Thrashers bug-a-boo as they were unable to get any closer than that for the rest of the game. The Capitals would extend their lead to three early in the final frame when Ovechkin sent a pass into the open ice, which Victor Kozlov picked up and lifted over the shoulder of Atlanta goalie Ondrej Pavelec on a breakaway.
Pavelec stopped 28 shots in the loss, while fellow rookie Natahn Oysterik scored his first goal of his career late in the third.
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