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Saturday, Mar. 25 7:00pm ET
Amazing Caps eye first in East | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
KANATA, Ontario (AP) -- The Washington Capitals are good, not just on an amazing roll. Peter Bondra scored on a short-handed breakaway in the third period to lift the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night. "On paper, we might not make it into the top 15 teams," Washington coach Ron Wilson said. "But I can tell you this is the most hard-working and committed team in the league. They're just dedicated to winning." The Southeast Division-leading Capitals have the NHL's best record since Jan. 1 (28-7-5) and are a league-leading 8-2 in their past 10 games. "On the road, we hadn't beat any one of the top five or six teams but we were winning against everybody else," Wilson said. Bondra stole the puck from Senators defenseman Wade Redden, then broke away from Ottawa's Marian Hossa to score the winner with his 21st goal of the season. It his third short-handed tally. "We really wanted to win this game and we played well enough to do it," said Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson, after the Senators dropped five points behind first-place Toronto in the Northeast Division. "We made one big mistake and they capitalized." Washington's Terry Yake opened the scoring midway through the first period when he poked in a loose puck behind Ottawa goalie Tom Barrasso. Joe Sacco gave the Capitals a two-goal lead at 13:30 when he scored from the slot with Barrasso down. The Senators responded with three unanswered goals. Daniel Alfredsson hit Shaun Van Allen with a pass low in the slot and Van Allen beat Washington's Olaf Kolzig at 15:24. Just 2:28 later, a long shot by Kevin Dineen hit Kolzig's stick and bounced over him into the net. "Kolzig really played well for them," Van Allen said. "He made the big saves down the stretch to win the game." Juneau gave the Senators a 3-2 lead 47 seconds into the second period with a blast from the top of the left circle as the teams skated 4-on-4. Ottawa's Rob Zamuner and Washington's Joe Murphy were serving roughing minors after Zamuner's stick appeared to clip Bondra's ear with eight seconds left in the opening period. "Both teams were clutching and grabbing," Van Allen said. "That's how it's called in the playoffs. You have to live with it." Sergei Gonchar swung out from the corner and flicked a shot past Barrasso to tie it 3-3 at 8:13. With two minutes left in the second, Ottawa's leading goal scorer Shawn McEachern left the game with an injured left thumb after he was slashed by Steve Konowalchuk. No penalty was called on the play. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Washington Clubhouse Ottawa Clubhouse RECAPS Los Angeles 4 Boston 4
Washington 4 AUDIO/VIDEO   Olaf Kolzig stops the Marian Hossa shot.avi: 723 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||