Capitals end losing streak sans Ovechkin
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 11:41 PM ET
The Associated Press
Jose Theodore stopped 28 shots and Brian Pothier had a goal and two assists as the Washington Capitals beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Friday night to break a three-game losing streak.
Brendan Morrison scored twice and Tyler Sloan added a goal for the Capitals (9-3-4) in the opening contest of a home-and-home series with the Panthers.
The Capitals, who were again without injured star Alex Ovechkin, will face Florida (5-8-1) on Saturday night in Washington. Nathan Horton scored for Florida.
Capitals defencemen Mike Green (upper body) and Jeff Schultz (lower body) were injured in the first period Friday.
"Really good teams usually have to play with a lot of injuries, because their guys are willing to pay the price of winning," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "I just hope our price wasn't too high."
Tomas Vokoun, coming off back-to-back shutouts, made 21 saves for the Panthers. Vokoun stopped 77 consecutive shots, dating to a second-period goal in Florida's 4-3 loss to Ottawa on Oct. 28, before Sloan scored in the first period.
Still hurting
Ovechkin missed his second consecutive game because of an upper-body injury he suffered Sunday against Columbus.
The two-time defending league MVP is considered week-to-week and didn't participate in Washington's morning skate Friday. It was Ovechkin's sixth absence in his five-season NHL career, and the fourth time an injury has sidelined him for a game.
Florida's only goal came midway through the third period after Theodore made the initial save on Dmitry Kulikov's slapshot.
"They're a desperate team," Panthers coach Pete DeBoer said.
"They'd lost three in a row. Got some key players out, we've been on the other end of that. They were hungrier in the tough areas tonight than we were. There's no excuse for that."
Horton put the rebound in, spoiling what would have been Theodore's first shutout since a 3-0 win at Florida on March 17. The power-play goal made it 3-1 at 10:28.
Morrison's second goal was an empty-netter with 38.5 seconds remaining.
