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Thrashers-Capitals Preview

Apr 8, 2010 - 4:38 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Atlanta (34-33-13) at Washington (53-15-12), 7:00 p.m. EDT

The Washington Capitals are looking to continue building momentum for the playoffs as Alex Ovechkin chases a scoring title.

The Capitals try for a fifth straight victory and eighth in a row over the Atlanta Thrashers when the Southeast Division rivals complete their season series Friday night at the Verizon Center.

Having clinched the Presidents' Trophy, Washington (53-15-12) is tuning up for the postseason. The Capitals weren't happy about an 0-1-2 stretch to close March but have not lost this month, starting with a 2-1 victory over Atlanta (34-33-13) last Thursday.

"We haven't had much to play for, but we talked about rolling into the playoffs on a high and we didn't do that last year and it cost us the first two games against (the Rangers in the first round) and made it a seven-game series," right wing Matt Bradley said. "The longer series take a toll on you."

Coach Bruce Boudreau claims that he will leave it up to Ovechkin if he wants to play these final two meaningless games. Ovechkin is trying to catch Vancouver's Henrik Sedin for the NHL scoring lead and is locked in a tight battle with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos for the most goals.

Ovechkin won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league's top goal scorer easily the past two seasons and won his lone Art Ross Trophy as the top scorer in 2007-08. He's been hampered by missing 10 games this season.

The Washington superstar ended a four-game goal drought with two in a 6-3 victory at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

"I've had lots of chances to score goals, and finally it did go in," he said.

Ovechkin has three goals and four assists against the Thrashers this season, and 12 points in the Capitals' six-game home win streak in the series.

Atlanta was eliminated from playoff contention with a 3-0 home loss to New Jersey on Tuesday. The Thrashers mustered 19 shots and fell to 2-4-2 in their last eight.

"We knew what our position was going into this game," goalie Johan Hedberg said. "It's a very disappointing feeling knowing you are not going into the postseason."

The Thrashers, who traded top scorer Ilya Kovalchuk to New Jersey on Feb. 4, will miss the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 seasons.

"It wasn't for lack of trying and that's one thing a coach likes to see, is that they gave it what they had," coach John Anderson said.

Atlanta has one of the league's worst power plays at 16.6 percent, going 0 for 9 in its last three games against Washington.