Referee Craig Spada waves off Peter Bondra's apparent game-tying goal after a five-plus minute review, and the Capitals fell to the San Jose Sharks, 3-2, in Washington.
The Capitals continued their inconsistent play in their three games the past week. On Tuesday, they put forth a terrific, 60-minute effort to defeat the previously unbeaten Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-1, sparking hopes their season-long slump might be over.
Two nights later, the downhill slide resumed. The Capitals took forty minutes to warm up, and only really played for the final twenty minutes against Philadelphia. However, they were already behind by three points by the time they warmed up, and third and fourth line players Joel Kwiatkowski and Brian Sutherby netted their first goals of the season in the third period, as the Caps fell to Philadelphia on the road, 4-2.
The Caps only took about fifteen minutes to warm up last night against the Sharks--roughly midway thru the first period, they trailed the Sharks in shots 9-3, but played some catchup thanks to a late period power-play. No goal was scored, but the previously ineffective power play managed to get some shots on net and the period ended with the Caps down on shots, 12-9.
The Caps scored first at 5:11 of the second period. Kip Miller scored his first of the season, with assists going to Jaromir Jagr and Sergei Gonchar. San Jose came back a little more then two minutes later, with Alyn McCauley getting the puck past a screened Olaf Kolzig to tie the game. Jonathan Cheechoo took advantage of a defensive-zone turnover at 12:42 of the second, and fired past Kolzigs glove from the right faceoff circle. The fault could only be Kolzig's on that one--he wasn't screened at all, and he was squared to the shooter, but his glove hand came up too slow.
More than halfway thru the third, bad defense led to the Shark's third goal by Patrick Marleau, and the game was seemingly out of reach. But with just over five minutes remaining and the Caps with a man advantage, Peter Bondra parked himself on the left side of the crease, took a pass by Jagr and slammed the puck past Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov, and the Caps woke up.
A few minutes later the Capitals used their only timeout to discuss strategy, and a fan (namely my girlfriend, sitting with her mother) whose seats face the Capitals bench observed that during the timeout, Head Coach Bruce Cassidy did not speak to the team. The assistant coaches did, but the head coach did not.
Kolzig was pulled with just over a minute remaining, and the Capitals managed to send a flurry of shots on net. Good passing and a team effort around the net led to Bondra's apparent goal with 5.8 seconds remaining, but referee Craig Spada, after a lengthy review (the Washington TIMES reported San Jose coach Ron Wilson speculated the officials called league headquarters), it was decided Bondra kicked the puck in, and the game was effectively over.
The Capitals regained sole possesion of last place in the NHL, at seven points.
Official Scoresheet vs Tampa Bay
Photograph copyright 2003 by Victor Ramirez. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate without permission.
Permalink | Send To A Friend | Linking Blogs | Digg this!
Filed under:
Washington Capitals
