Shootout Win Keeps Capitals In Playoff Hunt

Capitals 2, Bruins 1

Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov each scored pretty shootout goals to clinch the Washington Capitals' critical 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins yesterday.

The first star of the game, however, was awarded to goaltender Cristobal Huet, and deservedly so.

Huet stopped 39 shots, including 17 during a frantic third period, to ensure Washington got to extra time -- and a little bit closer to a playoff berth, too.

The victory was the Capitals' third straight and pulled them within two points of the reeling Philadelphia Flyers for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, and five points of Carolina for the Southeast Division lead with nine games left to play. The Flyers dropped their fourth straight yesterday, falling in Pittsburgh, 7-1, while Carolina beat Ottawa, 5-1, at home.

"Like I always said, coaches hate the shootout when you lose, and it's okay when you win," Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "The main thing is we got the two points. They knew if they had beaten us, with us getting nothing, they would have eliminated us from catching them. That was their goal."

And if not for Huet's heroics in the final minutes of regulation, the Bruins, playing for the second consecutive day and again without injured all-star defenseman Zdeno Chara, might have achieved that goal.

"Huet came up huge for us on a few saves, and in overtime and the shootout, he was outstanding for us tonight," said Sergei Fedorov, who scored his first goal as a Capital on the power play in the first period. "He gave us a chance to get that extra point."

Huet, who is 3-2-0 with a 1.68 goals against average and .940 save percentage since being acquired at last month's trade deadline, was at his best midway through the third period, just as the Capitals began to sputter and the tight-checking Bruins cranked up the pressure, turning back Marc Savard and Glen Murray on consecutive trips down the ice.

In overtime, Capitals defenseman Mike Green had the game on his stick, but he fired a wrist shot off of Alex Auld's shoulder from in close.

In the shootout, though, Semin and Kozlov came through to help the Capitals improve to 3-4 in games decided in penalty shots this season.

Semin raced down the slot, slammed on the brakes at the bottom of the slot before snapping the puck over Auld, who stopped Alex Ovechkin before Kozlov clinched it. Kozlov patiently stick-handed down the slot, waiting for a hole to open. When it did, he snapped the puck between Auld's pads, kicking off a celebration on the ice and in the sold-out arena.

Ovechkin, the NHL's leading scorer with 57 goals and 99 points, was stifled in regulation and then fell to 1 for 4 this season in shootouts, and 9 for 32 in his career.