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Undermanned Caps Fall
St. Louis Blues defenseman Steve Wagner, left, battles for the puck with Alex Ovechkin during the first period on Saturday.
(Kyle Ericson - AP Photo)
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"They beat me three times on the glove side to start," Johnson said. "I made a couple of saves, but I needed to have that third one."
Just 40 seconds after Brewer's goal, Green launched a soft shot from the blueline through traffic that slipped past Blues goalie Manny Legace to cut the Capitals' deficit in half.
But that's about the same time that an already thin Capitals' lineup was stretched even thinner, with Semin going down. Ironically, the team announced earlier in the day that it had signed the high-scoring winger to a two-year, $9.2 million contract extension.
"We'll never make excuses," Coach Glen Hanlon said. "Where it has an effect is with your game plan. You work on things, then all of sudden you don't have Semin in there."
Despite having every reason to, the Capitals didn't quit. On the power play at 3:47 of the second period, Green fired a slap shots through traffic past Legace, giving him his first career multiple goal game and tying the score at 2.
Despite putting themselves in position to steal one on the road in front of 16,863, the effects of being so severely undermanned eventually caught up with Washington.
Boyes recorded his second goal of the night at 18:41 of the second period, and defenseman Christian Backman finished off the Capitals at 1:11 of the third period, when he fired a slap shot from the slot past Johnson extend the Blues' lead to 4-2.
With Johnson on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, Michael Nylander scored with 1:12 left to play to make it 4-3. But the Capitals did not register another shot on goal.
Capitals Notes: Hanlon juggled his forward combinations and put rookie Nicklas Backstrom at center on the top line between Alex Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov. It marked the first time Backstrom has seen significant time at center, after spending the opening nine games of his NHL career playing left wing.
