Red Wings at Capitals
Captain Alex Ovechkin looks to extend his goal-scoring streak to six games when the red-hot Washington Capitals host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night. Ovechkin scored seven times in the last nine contests as the Capitals continue their rise in the Eastern Conference with just one regulation loss in 16 games (11-1-4) and none in the last six (4-0-2). The Red Wings are warming up as well with two straight road victories and a 5-2-1 mark over their last eight outings.
Detroit went ahead in the final minute and added an empty-net goal to beat Edmonton 4-2 on Tuesday and held off Calgary 3-2 the following day to improve to 2-1-0 on its six-game road trip. “We played the way we wanted to and I think that’s important,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg told reporters after his 800th career game Wednesday. Washington was 12 points out of first place in the Metropolitan Division before its surge and stand five behind the first-place New York Islanders.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, SNET, FSN Detroit, CSN Washington.
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (22-10-9): Zetterberg has accumulated 10 points in his last nine games to lead the team with 36 while veteran Pavel Datsyuk has 30. Goalie Jimmy Howard was rested in favor Petr Mrazek against Calgary and is expected back in net after allowing two or fewer goals in 10 of his last 11 appearances - giving up 19 total in that span. Detroit placed left wing Johan Franzen (upper body) on injured reserve, right wing Tomas Jurco (back) is questionable and left wing Teemu Pulkkinen was recalled from the minors.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (21-11-8): While Ovechkin has built his streak, forward Eric Fehr has posted six goals in his last six contests with a plus-7 rating in the stretch. Nicklas Backstrom scored his 13th goal in the 3-2 overtime loss at Philadelphia on Thursday and paces the team with 40 points. Braden Holtby has started 17 straight games in net for the Capitalss and Pheonix Copley was recalled to back him up after Justin Peters was sent to Hershey of the American Hockey League for a conditioning stint this weekend.
OVERTIME
1. The Red Wings defeated Washington 4-2 on Oct. 29 after the Capitals had scored 24 times while going 4-0-1 in the previous five meetings.
2. Washington's John Carlson has 26 assists, three behind league-leader among defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk of St. Louis.
3. Detroit LW Justin Abdelkader has a career-high 11 goals after scoring in each of the last two games and combining for three assists.