Caps Battle Guys from Gotham

The New York Rangers are in the house tonight at the Phone Booth with a bunch of new faces in their line up. The Caps had the momentum in the first period with a goal apiece from Brooks Laich and Tom Poti. Both goals were questioned by Ranger's coach Tom Renney (who was doing his share of whining this evening) and went to review but were deemed solid goals. With 3:25 left in the second, Caps held the lead at 2-0, consistently playing the type of gritty hockey that Gabby's been looking for.

The Ranger's Aaron Voros has been all up in Brent Johnson's crease all night but Johnny is still making some terrific saves despite being pestered. Tampa Bay's goalie Mike Smith got sick and tired of Voros invading his crease the other night and hit Voros repeatedly in the back and helmet!

Speaking of Tampa Bay, looks like the Caps might be facing yet another of their former team mates when the two clubs meet on Monday night. Former Capital Steve Eminger (who up until last night was a Philadelphia Flyer) and fellow thugnasty Flyer Steve Downie were both traded to the Lightning. And rumor has it that Olie Kolzig will get the start for the Bolts in this highly anticipated match up. Hockey Mom will be covering the Lightning game from the press box with all of the exciting details (including the state of Bolt's new boss Barry Melrose's world-famous mullet!

In the meantime, I've been waiting for Donald Brashear and Colton Orr to drop the gloves in this current bout. Ovie has been hitting like a mad man and laid a wicked check on Marc Staal but still remains scoreless.

The third period opened on a Caps' power play. Noticeably, the Russian power line from Thursday's victory is minus an injured Sergei Fedorov, who was replaced on the line by Nicklas Backstrom. And the blueshirts got on the board with a goal from the pesky Aaron Voros, who did the Ovie celebration against the glass, but with his stick. Ranger's captain Chris Drury (who is a dead ringer for actor Luke Wilson), was hooked by Ovechkin and awarded a penalty shot, which Brent Johnson poke checked away with a big "not in my house!" Johnny made another lovely save on a Ranger's power play with 55 seconds left in the contest. Funny moment when Chris Drury leaned on his stick which snapped in half, dumping the Ranger's leader in an awkward face plant - classic...

In another exciting Cap's finish, Alex Semin skated out of the penalty box and scored an empty net goal from the other side of the rink. Sasha has earned this year's title of "game over" for sure!

This was a huge victory against a New York team that is currently at the top of the Eastern Conference standings! There should be no doubt that Bruce Boudreau has found his starting goalie - will be fascinating to see Brent face off against his old pal Olie in just a few days. Another fabulous win - way to grind away boys!

As Hockey Mom has been up since the crack of dawn for games on yet another weekend morning, I am signing off for now. Keep rocking the red, Caps fans....