Thrashers’ Pavelec Shuts Out An Explosive Washington Capitals

Added on Nov 20, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

Atlanta’s Ondrej Pavelec finally got a little revenge on a team that he has always had a hard time beating. Pavelec lost 8 consecutive games against the Washington Capitals dating back to November of 2008. That streak was put to rest when he shut out the Capitals on Friday night, as he recorded his 3rd career NHL shut out.

Pavelec made 29 saves, but also gave credit to the players in front of him. “The guys helped to block the shots in front of me, and I always saw the first shot and [his teammates] had the rebound,” Pavelec said. “Overall, it was a great team effort.”

Pavelec had a rough start to the season. Minutes into the first game of the season, he fainted, and received a concussion when his head hit the ice. He missed seven games, and when he came back he went 0-4-1. He seems to be getting in his grove, and he always felt the Capitals could be beaten. “They are one of the best teams in the NHL,” Pavelec said. “If you play hard against them, you can beat them. We showed a lot of character and we showed we can play great hockey against the best teams.”

The Caps haven’t been shut out since December 9th at Buffalo. Washington (14-5-1) had 10 wins and 21 points in its first 12 games, but missed a chance at a 15th victory that would’ve been the Capitals’ best 20-game start.

The Thrashers have been struggling to get wins, and they have only one win in their last 7 games. Atlanta took a 3 goal lead into the locker room after the first period. Dustin Byfuglien scored in the second period, and then Alexander Burmistrov was able to finish off Washington with the final goal.

The Thrashers got to Caps goalie Braden Holtby when they scored on him 3 times, in five 5 shots, and it all took place in the span of 5 minutes. Holtby manned up and said he knew he was going to be pulled, and that he understood why. “I knew it,” says Holtby. “Whenever you go down 3-0 right away, you’re looking for a change of momentum or something. I wasn’t happy with any of those three goals. It was the right move. I wasn’t happy with my game today, and I will make sure I’m better next time.”

The Capitals had the shots on goal the advantage for most of the first half of the game, but the Thrashers were able to get the last 29 shots on goal out of the games 41. “I thought in the first period we were playing pretty good,” says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “Holtby struggled as some young guys do, and once we got in the hole [the Thrashers] had a lot of confidence and they kept playing well. Every time we tried to make a push, they beat it back and they scored goals at opportune times.”

It will be interested how Holtby responds to the loss, as this was his first NHL career loss. The loss was the first of Holtby’s NHL career. He lamented “Even if I would have played good tonight, I’m not really sure if I knew when my next game would be. My rule of thumb since I’ve been growing up is to never have two bad games in a row. I’m looking forward to the next one already. There are some things I am going to have to work on in preparation and some technical things I will have to do better next time.”