2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series – Washington Capitals win 2-1 against the New York Islanders
The 37th game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series saw the Washington Capitals play host to the New York Islanders. The match took place at the Verizon Centre, home of the Washington Capitals this past Wednesday, 13th October 2010.
There were around 19,000 fans that came to cheer for their respective team as the Washington Capitals won in the end with the score on 2-1.
1st Period
The Washington Capitals were quick out of the blocks as they came up with good scoring opportunities and goal attempts early on.
The New York Islanders didn’t make an offensive move during the starting few moments of the match. They came up with the first play of attack in the form of a counter attack that saw them scoring and taking the lead. The goal was scored by Nino Niederreiter
in the 4th minute of the period through a 23 feet wrist off shot.
The rest of the period didn’t see much happening as both the teams were reluctant to take. Washington Capitals didn’t want to be caught on a counter once again and the New York Islanders didn’t want to lose the lead. This resulted in no further goals in
the period, as the away side led with the 1st period ending. The New York Islanders scored one goal out of the 6 goal attempts they made, whereas the Washington Capitals made 5 goal attempts but didn’t score any goal.
2nd Period
The 2nd period was interesting if you are a Washington Capitals fan. The home team came out with determination and hunger to win. This was very well portrayed by the game that they were putting up.
Not only coming up with regular attacks on the opposing goal, the Washington Capitals also maintained a good, tight and non-porous defence. The New York Islanders didn’t play like they were playing in the 1st period. The simple reason for this
being the jam packed defence of the Washington Capitals.
Constant hard work in defence as well as offence, the Washington Capitals scored in the 19th minute of the 2nd period to level things at 1-1. The goal was scored by the Washington Capitals Captain Alex Ovechkin from 51 feet. The period
ended as the score was level at 1-1 with the home team, Washington Capitals scoring once out of the 15 goal attempts they made. The New York Islanders could only manage 6 shots in the period out of which none found the back of the net.
3rd Period
The score tied and last period, all was set for an intriguing final 20 minutes. The Washington Capitals had the upper hand going into the period after they scored the last goal and had thousands of fans cheering and urging them to go for the win.
During the first few moments of the period, the home fans and the Washington Capitals were kept silent by the extravagant plays of the New York Islanders. Not only did the Islanders dominate offence they didn’t let the Washington Capitals develop any dangerous
play during the entire period.
However, a mistake in defence in the 17th minute by the New York Islanders saw the Washington Capitals scoring and taking the lead at 2-1. The goal was scored by Nicklas Backstrom through a tip in from 17 feet. The game ended on the same score
as the home team emerged victorious after trailing at the end of the 1st period.
Both teams made 12 goal attempts in the period but it was the Washington Capitals who were able to score once and win the match.
"It is a matter of time," Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Seriously, with the people you put out there you hope they simplify it and it is a matter of time before they get one and they got one at an opportune time."
After the win Nicklas Blackstrom talking about the Coach said:
"Bruce just told us that we had to work hard and make simple plays," Backstrom said.
"That was our key before [the game] was simple play and a lot of shots. That's what was working, and a lot of traffic in front of the net. We got a lucky bounce, too."
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