Capitals

Maryland has no official National Hockey League team, but some Anne Arundel and Howard County residents have adopted their own.At Odenton's Piney Orchard Ice Arena, where the Washington Capitals practice, a loyal and growing corps of fans is appearing daily to cheer on a team advancing far further in the National Hockey League playoffs than anyone predicted.The fans come to support their hometown team, not Washington's."A lot of people here think of MCI Center as just the rink that they play in," said Amy Carver, the arena's business manager, "that [the Capitals']

DETROIT -- The Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings raced up and down the ice, scoring goal after goal, their hearts in their throats, their goaltenders sweating.For the Capitals, with Game 2 on the line, it was the goal that wasn't scored that ruined their sleep last night. For the Red Wings, sweet dreams came true with a 5-4 victory on defenseman Kris Draper's goal, 15:24 into overtime."You can tell how excited I was. The smile is still on my face," said Draper, who beat Washington goalie Olie Kolzig on the 60th Detroit shot of the game.

ESPN hockey analyst Bill Clement says the Washington Capitals could be "America's Anonymous Team," just as the Dallas Cowboys are "America's Team." Back when Clement played for the Capitals, he probably wished to have been anonymous.After two Stanley Cup championship years with the Philadelphia Flyers, Clement was dealt to Washington for the 1975-76 campaign, a season in which the second-year Caps could muster only 11 wins and 10 ties in 80 games, one of many, shall we say, lean seasons for the franchise.

Dale Hunter is a stoic player who keeps his feelings under wraps in good times and bad.But yesterday, after emerging from a team meeting in which Washington Capitals general manager David Poile announced the center had been named to the NHL All-Star team as a special selection by commissioner Gary Bettman, Hunter was anything but stoic."

Dale Hunter is a stoic player who keeps his feelings under wraps in good times and bad.But yesterday, when he emerged from a team meeting in which Capitals general manager David Poile announced Hunter had been named to the NHL All-Star team as a special selection by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, he was anything but stoic"I don't know what to say," Hunter said, his eyes moist, his voice catching. "Give me a few minutes."Hunter joins Philadelphia Flyers center Dale Hawerchuk as the commissioner's choices for the Eastern Conference All-Star team.

HockeyCapitals: Recalled D Brendan Witt from AHL Portland.Pub Date: 2/17/97

The Pittsburgh Penguins will go for the knockout punch today in Round 6 -- make that Game 6 -- of the NHL Eastern Conference quarterfinal with the Washington Capitals.The Penguins have a 3-2 lead in the series after a rough, 4-1 triumph in Pittsburgh on Friday night. Game 6 is 3 p.m. today at USAir Arena in Landover. Game 7, if necessary, will be in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night."For us, it's do or die," said Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig. "We're going to come out hungry and determined to win that hockey game no matter what it takes."

CHICAGO -- Four-time All-Star Jeremy Roenick, who has left the Chicago Blackhawks and might be headed for the Phoenix Coyotes, is flying to Washington today to talk contract with the Capitals.Roenick, 26, who used to play youth hockey in Columbia, Md., is so interested in the Capitals that the free-agent center told a friend he probably is going to sign a deal to play with them."I wouldn't be surprised if the Capitals make an offer that will blow this whole thing out of the water," Roenick said.

LANDOVER - The Washington Capitals won a big game yesterday in their season-ending drive to make the NHL postseason party.The Caps beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1, by turning in another strong defensive performance, getting tremendous goaltending from Jim Carey in critical moments and making the most of two beautiful goals by Peter Bondra and Michal Pivonka. Carey tied Don Beaupre's club record, set in 1991-92, for wins in a season at 29.It was a perfect day for the 18th sellout crowd of the season at USAir Arena and for the Capitals, who have to win this way. And it probably was a demonstration of how they are going to have to continue to win all the way to the Stanley Cup if they're going to get there this season.

Washington Capitals goalie Jim Carey has heard the predictions and seen the preseason reviews. The Capitals are supposed to be the fifth-best team in the National Hockey League and one of the top contenders for the Stanley Cup."Five months ago, we were physically beaten up going into the playoffs and no one gave us even a small chance of beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs," said Carey, who earned the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goalie in the regular season.

NEWARK, N.J. - -Without Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble in the lineup, the Capitals needed a near-perfect performance Saturday to beat the hot New Jersey Devils. But after Washington's Tomas Fleischmann and Mathieu Perreault scored the game's first two goals early in the first period, the Devils took advantage of the Capitals' penchant for penalties and turnovers as well as a subpar effort from goaltender Jose Theodore, scoring the game's next five goals to clinch a 5-2 victory at Prudential Center.

ATLANTA - -The Washington Capitals needed a lift on offense with Alexander Semin sidelined, and they got it from the most unlikely of sources Thursday night. Low-scoring defenseman Jeff Schultz notched three points at Philips Arena, including a goal from 150 feet out, and three others scored their first goals of the season to lead the Capitals to a sloppy 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers. Washington chased previously hot goaltender Ondrej Pavelec from the net with three goals on four shots, all in the span of 1:28.

WASHINGTON - -New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist gifted a goal to Nicklas Backstrom early in the third period and then the center scored again a few minutes later to put the Washington Capitals ahead. It should have been enough. It wasn't. Rangers sniper Marian Gaborik scored two goals of questionable quality on Jos? Theodore in the span of 2 minutes, 33 seconds to send the Capitals to their second consecutive loss, 4-3 at Verizon Center. "Anytime you have the lead [late] in the game, you have to [win]

WASHINGTON - -The Washington Capitals unfurled another Southeast Division championship banner before a boisterous, red-clad crowd Saturday night at Verizon Center. Then the most exciting team in franchise history showed exactly why it's regarded as such. Alex Ovechkin, Mike Knuble and Brooks Laich each scored before 14 minutes had been played, and the Capitals took a five-goal lead into the third period before hanging on against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-4. "I was once told that anytime you win you shouldn't complain, because there are so many times you lose," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said.

WASHINGTON - -There have been precious few events in Washington sports like the one that will take place tonight at Verizon Center, and the heroes in years past have names such as Dale Hunter, a Washington Capitals great, because he once scored an overtime winner to keep a season alive. Painfully, the villains include guys like Pat LaFontaine, the New York Islander who unforgettably turned an April morning miserable for Washington fans, because he scored in the fourth overtime, ending a never-ending game, not to mention the Capitals' season.

PITTSBURGH - - Twice in the span of 48 hours, Washington Capitals checking line center David Steckel put himself in position to score in overtime. The second time, however, went much better than the first. One game after misfiring on an open net, Steckel scored what he called the biggest goal of his career, redirecting a shot 6 minutes, 22 seconds into extra time to lift the Capitals to a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, force a Game 7 and add a chapter to one of the most memorable playoff series in recent memory.

Defenseman Mike Green broke a tie on a power play 43 seconds into the third period, then added an empty-netter, lifting the host Washington Capitals over the Florida Panthers, 3-1, last night and giving him goals in six consecutive games. That's the longest goal streak by a defenseman in Capitals history. Green leads NHL defensemen with a career-high 19 goals and 46 points this season, despite missing 13 games. He's second in the NHL with 14 power-play scores. His tiebreaker came off assists from reigning Most Valuable Player Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, and while Panthers center Stephen Weiss was in the penalty box for holding.

Monday night, Ovechkin recorded a hat trick to break out of a scoring slump in which he had one goal in the previous eight games. The offensive outburst raised the left wing's goal total for 2007-08 to 52, making him the first player to reach 50 in the NHL this season. (It is the second time he has achieved that milestone in his three-season NHL career). And with 15 games remaining, he has a chance to be the first to reach 60 in more than a decade. The last two players with that many goals in a season were Lemieux, with 69, and Jaromir Jagr, with 62, in 1995-96 for the Penguins.

Linda Taylor became a Washington Capitals fan at the Piney Orchard Ice Rink. The former softball coach at Archbishop Spalding High School occasionally brought her son and daughter to team practices there, and they met Peter Bondra, who played with the Capitals for 14 years. Now with the Atlanta Thrashers, Bondra is a down-to-earth guy who, after Capitals practice, taught Taylor's children how to shoot a puck and hold a stick. He also answered the children's questions. "He was just like a regular Joe coming off the ice," Taylor said.

In a game between last-place teams, the Boston Bruins had the greater sense of desperation. The Bruins rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period and got Brad Stuart's goal 2:02 into overtime last night to earn a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals. "We're at this point right now where we have to get it going," said Boston's Sergei Samsonov, who scored the tying goal with 7:14 remaining in regulation. "There's nothing really that can discourage us anymore. We're a desperate team, and I think we kind of showed that desperation tonight."