Caps beat Ranger 2-1 and Semin fights

The Caps played a close defensive game against the New York Rangers at the phone booth on Saturday and came away with 2 points courtesy of Alex Ovechkin's short-handed game winning goal at 19:28 in the 2nd period.  And, it a beauty as he faked out Rangers defenseman Wade Redden and then used him as a screen to shoot the puck past goalie Steven Valiquette who filled in for a sick Richard Lundqvist.

The biggest highlight of the game was Alexander Semin fighting Marc Staal.  Right before the fight, Semin got pushed into the net and got chippy with Staal giving him what looked like a face wash.  Staal proceeded to take off Semin's jersey as it wasn't tied down like it's supposed to be. He said, read more in Tarik's blog, that he tripped over Semin's equipment and fell to the ice. Semin then proceeded to slap on him until the referees stopped him.  He got a game misconduct for not having his jersey strapped down.

That fight was, without a doubt, the most hysterical fight I've ever seen in hockey and I've been watching hockey for a long time.  To give Semin credit he didn't back down from the defender Staal and he got the better of him.  Still, he should leave the fighting to Donald Brashear or learn how to fight from Brash. 

The highlights:

• The Semin fight was highlight #1.
• Ovie's short-handed goal and overall play earned him another first star of the game.  He played 27:23 with 1 point, 9 shots on goal, 1 takeaway, 3 hits and 2:15 of short-handed play.  The funniest Ovie moment of the game came right after one of his missed shots on goals.  They put him on the Jumbotron as he was mouthing "mother fucker".  Clearly, he like using English swear words.
• David Steckel, second star of the game, had 1 assist on Ovie's goal, 3 shots, 2 takeaways and a 70% faceoff win percentage. 
• Jose Theodore faced 22 shots and only let in 1.  He's on a streak of effective goaltending.
• Alexander Semin's pass right across the front of the net onto Mike Green's tape was pretty and Green capitalized on it for his 10th goal of the season and the first of that game.  Green played +1 hockey for 24:21.
• The defense overall played an effective game as the Rangers only got 1 goal compared to going down 4-0 at Madison Square Garden a couple of weeks ago before coming back to win that game.
• Chris Clark continued agitating on the ice and, boy, do the Caps need that now and, particularly, in the playoffs.

The lowlights:

• Having to put up with New York Rangers fans where I sat.  They weren't too obnoxious and their chants were overcome by Caps fans chants of "Rangers suck", but I'll be happier when there are no visiting fans at Caps games.  That won't happen, but I like to dream.
  

The Philadelphia Flyers visit the phone booth tomorrow night where the Caps are 17-1-1. Let's hope they can get some revenge for the 7-1 debacle in Philly on 12/20.  That is the Caps only loss in 12 games.

Let's go Caps!