caps 5, panthers 3 – bye, bye, kitties!

oh, this game was glorious. i mean, except for the horrible sight of shaone morrisonn skating off the ice with a visible leg injury. and except forr for most of the second period. and the fact that kozlov couldn’t close the hat trick deal, despite some excellent play in the last few minutes of the third. and the fact that the caps couldn’t

but, oh, indeed!
let’s relive the highlights:

1. kozlov, who makes more shots on goal than every Cap except Ovechkin, had that firing hand pay off with two goals. one of them occured so quickly following the faceoff, i didn’t realize the move had even happened until the jumbotron replay.

2. four assists for backstrom? he got a well-deserved #1 star of the game nod for that, and I think he’s well in the running for that rolex watch this year.

3. erskine scores! yes, THAT erskine.

4. and semin scores as well. he’s been so plagued by injury this season, it’s nice to see him back on the ice – especially with clark and nylander gone – and back up to what we’ve come to expect from him.

seriously, this game just had a great feeling. packed with caps fans (i only saw two people in panthers jerseys), the phone booth was full of cheers, especially during the final minutes of the game, when the caps pulled off an amazing offensive scrabble in the end.

i like this ap photo of the panthers, seeming to conspire as to ways to get past johnson:

here’s a nice photo of backstrom and semin celebrating, from the AP:

that’s about how i felt last night, as well.

~ by malaiseybonbons on January 20, 2008.