Washington, DC (Sports Network) - Alexander Semin had a goal and an assist and
Washington scored five goals in the first period, as the Capitals downed the
Florida Panthers, 5-2, at the Verizon Center.
Jamie Heward, Matt Bradley, Chris Clark and Kris Beech also scored for the
Capitals, who end a two-game losing skid. Olie Kolzig made 34 saves.
Jozef Stumpel and Nathan Horton scored for the Panthers, who lost their second
straight. Mike Van Ryn added a pair of assists. Alex Auld was removed with
7:24 left in the first after allowing four goals on 12 shots. Ed Belfour came
in and blocked 13-of-14 shots thereafter.
Semin tapped in a wrister a tick over a minute into the game for an
early 1-0 Washington lead and his team-high sixth goal.
Just under six minutes into the first, Steve Weiss got the puck to Stumpel,
who backhanded the mid-air puck into the goal on the power play to tie the
score, 1-1.
Clark got a rebound at the top of the left circle and fired a slap shot into
the back of the net to give Washington a 2-1 lead just over seven minutes into
the first.
The Caps then blew the game open down the first-period stretch. Heward scored
on an unassisted slap shot from just inside the blue line under 12 minutes
into the first, Beech snapped in a shot 39 seconds later, and Bradley scored
an unassisted wrister 14:18 into the period for a 5-1 Washington lead heading
into the second.
After a scoreless second period, Horton brought the Panthers within three
goals on a power-play wrister 8:12 into the third for the final margin.
Washington was 0-for-5 on the power play, while Florida finished 2-for-4.
