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Laich's late goal lifts Caps over Islanders

Oct 8, 2007 - 10:11 PM By Doug Mittler PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- The Washington Capitals made their paltry shot total count and are off to their best start in five years.

Brooks Laich scored just under eight minutes into the third period and Olie Kolzig stopped 30 shots to lift the unbeaten Capitals to a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday. Laich's goal at 7:58 gave the Capitals, who were outshot 31-12, their first 3-0 start since the 2002-03 season.

"It's not going to happen that a team gets that many shots without getting a win," admitted Capitals captain Chris Clark, whose team used solid defense and excellent penalty killing to win for the third time in four days.

With the score tied, Michael Nylander set up the goal by intercepting Mike Comrie's clearing attempt.

"It was just a bad decision at that point of the game," said Comrie, who was held scoreless after collecting four goals in his first two games.

"I tried to get it out. You learn from plays like that. We'll do it all over again Wednesday (against the New York Rangers) and hopefully, it will be a better outcome."

Nylander fed out to the point to Brian Pothier, whose slap shot was kicked aside by Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro. The puck went right to Laich, who was left alone in the slot. He stuffed in the rebound for his first goal of the season.

"I know my role is to be solid on the penalty kill and to be a dependable forward," said Laich, who entered the season with 15 goals in 151 NHL games.

"It's nice to get a goal. I think I can show more offensively, but I don't want to sacrifice my defense."

Kolzig kept the Capitals in the game and was busiest in the second period, when the Islanders had 17 shots.

"We've done it a few different ways," Kolzig said. "We're going into games expecting to win. Last year, we went in saying, 'Let's play hard and see what happens.'"

Richard Park scored in the first period for Islanders, who suffered their first loss after back-to-back wins over the Buffalo Sabres.

"The effort was there," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "We had a couple of costly turnovers that went in. You're going to have some games like this. Our execution wasn't there."

Signed to a two-year contract extension on Sunday, Park opened the scoring at 6:30 of the first, when he beat Kolzig on a wrist shot from inside the right circle off a pass from Darryl Bootland.

Despite dominating in the second, the Islanders surrendered the only goal of the period.

Washington tied it at 7:58 of the second, when former Islander Viktor Kozlov took a pass from Alex Ovechkin and ripped a slap shot from the high slot over the right shoulder of DiPietro.

New York's Trent Hunter had a breakaway early in the third but missed a chance to score when the puck was poked away by former Islander defenseman Tom Poti.

Each team failed to scored on extended two-man advantages - the Capitals for 96 seconds midway through the second and the Islanders for 57 seconds early in the third.

An apparent goal by Clark was disallowed midway through the opening period because he gained control of the puck with a high stick before putting it past DiPietro.

The Capitals played without left wing Alexander Semin, who aggravated a knee injury in Saturday's win over Carolina.