Surging Capitals clinch third successive win over Senators

January 2, 2008

WASHINGTON, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Mike Green had two goals and an assist to help the revived Washington Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Tuesday for their second triumph over the Eastern Conference leaders in four days.

It was the third victory in as many games for the Caps over the Senators this season with Washington scoring 18 goals over the three encounters. Ottawa are 25-7-4 against the rest of the NHL.

“Sometimes there are teams you play well against,” Green told reporters.

“I think we’ve got to give ourselves credit to beat them three times in a row. They are a very good hockey club and the stats show that.”

The Capitals are also turning into a very good hockey club after pushing their way back into the playoff picture after a dreadful start.

They were 6-14-1 when they fired coach Glen Hanlon at Thanksgiving and have gone 10-5-4 under new coach Bruce Boudreau, who lost his “interim” tag last week.

“We’re starting to believe,” said goaltender Olaf Kolzig, who moved into 25th place on the NHL’s all-time victory list with his 289th. “We’re a different hockey team than we were six weeks, a month ago. We’re confident, we’re scoring goals.

“We’re winning a lot more than we’re losing. But we got ourselves into such a big hole at the beginning of the season that we’re slowly but surely creeping our way back into things.”

After beating the Senators 8-6 in Ottawa at the weekend, Washington saw them come out and score the game’s first two goals on Tuesday. But the Caps answered with five in a row and were on their way.

Michael Nylander, Viktor Kozlov, Boyd Gordon and Brooks Laich also scored for Washington, with Kozlov snapping a 23-game goalscoring drought.

Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin had four goals and an assist on Saturday and added two assists on Tuesday.

* Sidney Crosby set up Colby Armstrong for the game’s first goal in the first minute and then had the deciding shootout goal when the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins edged the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 before 71,217 people in the first outdoor NHL game ever played in the United States.

“This is hockey at its best. It’s unbelievable,” Crosby said after the teams played in light snow and broke the league attendance record of 57,167 set when the Montreal Canadiens visited the Edmonton Oilers for an outdoor game in 2003.

* Reserve goalie Scott Clemmensen stopped both shootout attempts in his first NHL start of the season when the Toronto Maple Leafs scored a 4-3 home win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have lost eight of their last nine games and are the NHL’s worst road team.

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