Capitals continue barrage against Senators

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The Washington Capitals followed up a road win against the Eastern Conference-leading Ottawa Senators in early November with a five-game losing streak that cost their coach his job.

After defeating the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday night, a repeat letdown appeared plausible when Washington yielded two quick goals yesterday. But the Caps regrouped and proceeded to reel off five consecutive tallies in a 6-3 win against those same Senators in front of 14,547 at Verizon Center.

"I think we are a different hockey team than we were, say, six weeks or a month ago," goaltender Olie Kolzig said. "We're confident. We're scoring goals. We're winning a lot more than we are losing, and I think we are starting to believe we are a good hockey team."

The Caps came back from the holiday break losers of three in a row and facing a dangerous six-game stretch. Four contests in Washington is 3-0-1, and the Caps knocked off the top team in the conference twice in less than 72 hours by a combined 14-9 score.

Ottawa was 9-1-1 in its previous 11 games before Saturday, and the Senators are now 25-7-4 against the rest of the NHL and 0-3 in meetings with the Caps.

"Sometimes throughout the league there are some teams you just play well against," defenseman Mike Green said. "I think we got to give ourselves credit to beat this team two games in a row. They are a very good hockey club, and the stats show it."

At Scotiabank Place, the Caps' top players provided all the offense in an 8-6 shootout, including four goals from Alex Ovechkin. While Green, a budding star on the blue line, had two goals and an assist for the Caps yesterday, the team found offense from other sources.

Viktor Kozlov ignited the rally with his first goal since that first meeting in Ottawa on Nov. 8, a span of 23 games. Rookie Nicklas Backstrom corralled the puck near the boards, spun and fired a pass to Kozlov, who potted his fourth of the season — and only his second in the past 37 games.

The goal came 29 seconds after Ottawa grinder Dean McAmmond had split two Washington defenders and given the Senators a 2-0 advantage.

"I said a few things, and my face got a little redder as it went I think," said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, who is now 10-5-4. "I think the Kozlov goal gave us such a lift because everyone wanted him to score so badly."