Washington's Playoff Drive Takes a Detour in Chicago

CHICAGO, March 19 -- If the Washington Capitals are going to sneak into the playoffs, they're going to need to show more desire than they displayed at sold-out United Center on Wednesday night.

Much more.

The listless Capitals were pummeled by Jason Williams and the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-0, in a contest that was over before it was 20 minutes old. The defeat -- Washington's sixth shutout loss of the season -- snapped a four-game winning streak.

Williams, Jonathan Toews, Yanic Perrault and Patrick Sharp all scored first-period goals on goaltender Olie Kolzig (37 saves) as the Capitals, playing for the second consecutive night, appeared helpless to stop the Blackhawks' barrage.

"I just think we had a real stinker," Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We stunk in the first period. We were getting out-shot 18-3 at one point. Everybody was playing bad. They were lethargic, didn't have any jump, from [Alex] Ovechkin to [Donald] Brashear."

The Capitals did succeed in one area, though. They made their path to the playoffs slightly more difficult with seven games remaining. Washington remains two points behind idle Philadelphia in the race for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference but lost ground to Southeast Division-leading Carolina, which now has a five-point edge.

Kolzig assessed his own performance this way: "As a goalie, sometimes your job is to try to survive the rush. And it didn't happen that way. The third goal, obviously, that's one I would like to stop. We were too busy watching in the first period."

It didn't help that Ovechkin, an MVP candidate, never seemed to find a rhythm against the Blackhawks, who won for only the second time in seven games. Ovechkin, the NHL's leading scorer with 58 goals and 102 points, finished with only two shots.

Ovechkin, however, wasn't the only player in the spotlight.

The game also featured three of the league's top four rookie scorers -- Chicago's Patrick Kane, his linemate Toews and Washington's Nicklas Backstrom. With an assist, Kane increased his lead over Backstrom in the points race to 63-61. Backstrom (one shot) is six assists shy of breaking Ovechkin's franchise rookie record of 54.

After an emotionally charged, 15-minute long ceremony honoring Hall of Fame goaltender Tony Esposito, one of Chicago's beloved sports figures, the Blackhawks fed off the crowd's energy and went on to dominate every aspect of the first 20 minutes, out-shooting the Capitals 18-6.

Matt Cooke said standing around during the ceremony was not an acceptable explanation for the first-period failure.