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Brashear lifts Capitals past Islanders

Dec 5, 2008 - 4:29 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Enforcer Donald Brashear's first goal of the season snapped a third-period tie as the Washington Capitals skated to a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday.

The Islanders, who won the previous three meetings between the teams, were the only Eastern Conference team Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau had not defeated in 87 games behind the bench.

The Capitals were 0-0-2 against the Islanders after Boudreau, the 2007-08 Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL's Coach of the Year, was hired last season.

"When we get that other scoring, and it happens to be the game-winner and it's Donald, who works so hard and doesn't get the minutes some of the other people get, it's nice to see him score every now and again," Boudreau said. "He has to go to the net and bang one in. Donald has been in this league for a long time, and he knows that those are the goals he's going to score. He's not going to go end-to-end."

Brashear's first goal since March 3 ended a 37-game drought and gave Washington a 3-2 lead at 6:50 of the third.

"It just bounced there and I went to the goalie, and it looked like a big piece of cheese to me," Brashear said. "I was wondering what I could do (to score more goals). (General Manager George McPhee) said, 'Try to take it to the net and crash there.'"

Rookie defenseman Karl Alzner recorded his first career point when his shot missed the net and caromed off the end boards to Brashear, who fired the puck past goaltender Joey MacDonald.

"It's no first goal, but it's really nice to get (my first point) out of the way," said Alzner, the fifth overall pick of the 2007 draft. "I see other guys getting called up and getting some points, and I knew my time would come."

Eric Fehr provided an insurance goal on the power play at 16:14 of the period and Nicklas Backstrom added an empty-netter with 50 seconds remaining for the final margin.

Superstar Alex Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov scored first-period, power-play goals before the Islanders battled back. Brent Johnson stopped 27 shots for Washington and Ovechkin added two assists.

"We knew if we had a chance to shoot the puck, we should shoot it," Ovechkin said. "When Brashear scored the goal and Fehr scored the goal, we just shoot the puck and take some rebounds. It's a key to the game."

Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead, firing a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle over MacDonald's left arm with 8:29 left in the first period for his 14th goal of the season.

A former Islander, Kozlov deflected blue-liner Bryan Helmer's shot past MacDonald less than two minutes later to double Washington's lead.

New York defenseman Mark Streit launched a shot from just inside the blue line that beat Johnson to the glove side with 36 seconds left in the opening period to halve the deficit.

The Islanders tied it at 2-2 on Trent Hunter's 11th goal of the season. Defenseman Andy Sutton passed the puck from behind the net to Hunter, who one-timed it past Johnson with 6:22 remaining in the middle session for the equalizer.

"The Capitals were jumping tonight," New York's Mike Sillinger said. "In the first period, especially, I felt we played a lot of defensive-zone coverage. We never had a chance to forecheck. We were kind of back on our heels a bit. We got it to 2-2, but their power play took over."

New York also had a goal nullified early in the second period. Blue-liner Chris Campoli fired a shot from just inside the red line that glanced off a linesman's skate and sneaked past an outstretched Johnson.

MacDonald made 42 saves for the Islanders.

"From my side of it, I didn't see us pressuring like we're accustomed to," Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. "I didn't see us playing with urgency like we had been. You see what happens when we don't."