WASHINGTON, D.C. – Marty Turco was the shining star on Monday night for Dallas in Washington, D.C.  Turco made 49 saves on 52 shots as the Stars spoiled the Washington Capitals’ 13-game home winning streak with a 4-3 victory in a shootout.  Loui Eriksson scored in the fifth round of the shootout to seal the game for Dallas.

 

Less than a minute into the game Dallas produced a two-on-one rush but Brenden Morrow was denied by Capitals goaltender Semyon Varlamov and a Brandon Segal rebound was flipped harmlessly over the net on the backhand.  Alexander Semin had his own chance 30 seconds later but Turco made a sprawling right pad save to keep the game scoreless.  The game began with an extremely quick pace, much to the liking of Bruce Boudreau and the Capitals.

It did not take long for Washington to score their first goal when David Steckel recovered the puck in the Dallas right corner after a turnover by Mike Modano.  Steckel fed defenseman Tom Poti who walked in on Turco and scored over his left shoulder to give the Caps an early 1-0 lead.  The goal was the 4th of the season for Poti.       

Turco, one of the better goalies on the NHL, was forced to make numerous spectacular saves on both Alexander Ovechkin and Semin to keep his team within one goal early in the game.  Turco was in fact spectacular the entire game.

Dallas appeared to have tied the score midway through the second period on a feed from ex-Tampa Bay Lightning star Brad Richards but Eriksson hit the side of the net instead of the back of the goal, keeping the Washington advantage at 1-0.

Eric Belanger, the newly acquired Caps center, found the outside of the left post only a few minutes later, unable to notch the games second goal.  The period concluded with Washington peppering the Dallas net for 19 shots but only maintaining the one goal lead.

Ovechkin nearly broke his brief goal scoring drought early in the second period but missed wide of the net on a nifty feed from teammate Nicklas Backstrom in the slot.

Dallas proceeded to put themselves in a bad situation towards the end of the second period against the NHL’s best power-play unit.  Karlis Skrastins was called for a hooking penalty in the slot and only 35 seconds into that penalty, usually sure handed Stephane Robidas cleared the puck over the small glass along the Stars bench, giving Washington a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity.

Mark Fistric and Turco did their best to stop Washington, Fistric with three great shot blocks and Turco making numerous good saves.  Ovechkin finally broke through when Semin found him and the top of the right circle for a slap-shot that beat Turco past his left skate to give the Caps a 2-0 advantage.  The goal was Ovechkin’s 43rd tally of the season.

Boudreau, noticing that Ovechkin had been frustrated by his recent goal scoring drought, mentioned in his press conference following the game, “I told him this morning, you just have to work harder.  I thought he was in a mode where he was waiting for the play to come to him instead of going out and creating the play. But you saw in his first two or three shifts in the game he was going out and hitting guys and he had his energy back. When he has his energy, he is what he is: the best player in the world.”

Washington maintained a 2-0 lead after two periods and put 42 shots on Turco compared to only 16 for the Stars.

Bad penalties had been a theme for the Washington Capitals early in the season.  The Caps had just played two nearly perfect periods and were on the verge of putting away their visitors from Dallas.  Unfortunately, the combination of bad penalties, questionable goaltending and weak penalty-kill units reared their ugly heads in the third period.

Boudreau summed it up best, saying, “I thought the entire team had a hiccup in the third period.”

Mike Green hauled down a Dallas forward early in the third period in his defensive zone corner while chasing after a lose puck.  With Green sitting in the penalty box, Richards snapped a shot for Varlamov’s shoulder to cut the Washington lead to 2-1.

Once the lead had been cut in half, Matt Bradley became entangled with a Dallas player and was whistled for a two minute penalty.  Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley fired a slap shot through a screen and the puck found the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2.

Dallas took a brief lead on a James Neal goal which by all accounts Varlamov should have saved.  The wrist shot was taken from nearly the blue line and somehow went between the goalies legs to give Dallas the 3-2 lead.

With his mother attending the game, Alexander Ovechkin was not going to let Dallas score the final goal in regular time.  Ovechkin made a fantastic inside-out moving confusing Stephane Robidas and then ripped a wrist shot over Turco’s glove to tie the game at 3-3.  Ovechkin’s highlight reel goal forced overtime.

Backstrom scored on a nifty backhand flip in the second round of the shootout to give the Caps a brief lead.  Brad Richards, the next shooter up for Dallas also found the back of the net to tie the shootout at 1-1.  Neither team came particularly close until Loui Eriksson faked out Varlamov in the fifth round and slotted the puck into the net.  Dallas mobbed their teammate and their goalie Turco, who played awesome in the victory.

The Capitals have a busy week, with four games on the schedule.  The Carolina Hurricanes will visit Verizon Center on Wednesday night and Tampa Bay, another Southeast Division rival, will come into town on Friday night.  Washington will finish the week on the road on Sunday afternoon in front of a national television audience versus the Chicago Blackhawks.  Chicago is second in the Western Conference with 91 points and only five points behind Washington in the race for the best record in the NHL.

Game Notes:

- The Hershey Bears won their 23rd consecutive home game on Sunday afternoon over the Adirondack Phantoms.  The streak is considered the longest in professional hockey history.

- The Capitals are 20-2-2 since Alexander Ovechkin became Captain on January 5, 2010

- Defenseman Milan Jurchina will have a double sports hernia surgery on Thursday.  He is expected to be out four to six weeks

-  Lastly, Tomas Fleischmann was given the night off for rest.  The team is carrying five extra skaters to keep everyone fresh leading up to the playoffs.