Who Needs Ovechkin? Caps Demo Panthers

Alexander who?

Even with the absence of Alexander Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals dominated the Florida Panthers in last night's game. The Caps took a 6-0 lead in the 3rd period before Florida got a sniff at Washington's goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

An "Alex" did step up as Alexander Semin returned to the Caps' lineup with a bang, scoring 2 goals and contributing 2 assists. Semin had been out for the last seven Washington games with a wrist injury, and he "was well-rested" joked coach Bruce Boudreau.

Ovechkin was serving the 1st of a 2 game suspension for a knee-on-knee hit on Carolina's Tim Gleason that left Ovechkin injured. Some fans in the home crowd sellout of 18,277 held signs reading "Free Alex." He won't be eligible to play again until Monday when Washington plays Tampa Bay, but on a positive note, the Caps are 5-2-0 this season when Ovechkin isn't in the lineup.

Semin scored his 1st of the night midway through the 1st period, and Tomas Fleischmann put Washington up 2-0 a minute later, prompting Florida to pull goalie Scott Clemmensen who was himself taking over for injured Tomas Vokoun, who was injured last monday when a teammate, defenseman Keith Ballard, accidentally stuck him across the head with his stick. With Clemmensen out of the Panthers' net, youngster Alexander Salak put in his 2nd career appearance, but the rookie netminder fared no better, allowing 4 more goals over the remaining two and a half periods.

Salak was beaten early in the 2nd period as Washington's Matt Bradley stole the puck in the neutral zone while shorthanded, flew over the Panthers' blue line and beat the goalie glove side with a long snap shot, putting the Capitals up 3-0. About 2 minutes later, Nicklas Backstrom scored while Florida was down two men.

In the 3rd, Brendan Morrison (with his 9th) and Semin scored power play goals to put the Caps up 6-0 six and a half minutes into the period. Florida center Steven Weiss got one back late to break the shut out Varlamov had going. Weiss had 3 goals in Florida's 6-5 win the night before and with his 12th goal, has a 5 game points streak. But it was too little, too late. Bryan Allen beat Varlamov less than a minute later to round out the scoring.

With the win, Washington moves 9 points up on 2nd place Atlanta Thrashers in the Southeast Division and Florida remains in 4th in the same division. Washington has won all three of the teams meetings this season by a combined score of 17-7.

The Hockey Highlighter shows that Washington next plays Florida January 13th, 2010 when the Capitals head to the Panthers' home rink. Washington next plays the Philadelphia Flyers in Philly, while the Panthers host the Thrashers. Both games are on Saturday, December 5th.