Washington Capitals earn first win over Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 -NHL Preseason Update
The younger players took charge and led their team, Washington Capitals, to their first 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) preseason victory against Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-1, on Monday, September 26, at the near sold-out Verizon Centre, in Washington, District
of Columbia.
Over 18,000 showed up in support for their team to provide that critical motivational factor, allowing their team to finally make a comeback after losing to Columbus, 4-3, earlier last week on Wednesday, September 21.
For Washington, it was certainly a surprising moment to see their young prospects to take the lead and score the big points that counted. Chris Bourque, Mathieu Perreault and Cody Eakin worked together in perfect harmony, which obviously did not go unnoticed
by Washington head coach, Bruce Boudreau.
“They all played really good”, Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They all competed, they did their job, they played defensively pretty well. It was a good game for all three of them”.
Getting noticed is top priority for the young players who get a chance to participate during the preseason, which eventually is a grading process for them to get a chance in the regular season.
“I think it was a good game, good showcase for all three of us”, Bourque said, after adding three assist. “That’s the kind of game we need to be playing, energizing the team and buzzing around in their zone creating scoring chances for ourselves and capitalizing
on them like we did. We were really bearing down on our chances and it definitely showed”.
Dennis Wideman scored the opening shot for Washington during a power play opportunity with Blue Jackets losing Nick Drazenovic due to a minor penalty at the 9:11 mark on the clock.
Cody Eakin scored his first off of Chris Bourque’s second assist with five minutes remaining in the period.
Mathieu Perreault extended the lead to 3-0 midway through the second while taking opportunity of another added man advantage.
Columbus was down 3-0 entering the final 20 minutes. Vaclav Prospal finally put Blue Jackets on the scoreboard with less than eight minutes remaining but Washington goalie, Michal Neuvirth returned to lockdown mode after that, blocking any Columbus shot
on his net.
Washington Capitals will be heading to Nashville to face Predators on Wednesday while Blue Jackets return home to face Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
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