Capitals Pounce on Panthers

Artem Chubarov and Greg Watson scored a pair of goals each to lead the Washington Capitals to a 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Day 29. The win moves Washington back to .500 for the season at 6-6-2.

The Panthers came out flying in the first period, and after failing on an early power play Florida opened the scoring through Nolan at 15:16. Hanzus and Bondra assisted on the goal. The Capitals replied when Chubarov scored his first of the game from Zigmund Palffy and Todd Warriner at 17:30. Florida regained the lead just over two minutes later when Dagenais netted from Weiss and Novoseltsev, but once again the Captials replied. This time the goal came after just 21 seconds as Watson scored from Frantisek Lukes and Jonathan Cheechoo.

Washington turned up the heat in the second period and scored a pair of goals to take control of the game. Chubarov got the first, his second of the game, from Bryan Berard and Palffy at 1:54. After killing a penalty to Berard, Blake scored the second to make it 4-2 from Dan Boyle and Mikael Renberg at 14:28.

Florida tried to rally in the final period, but a pair of penalties made life difficult for the home club. The Capitals failed to score during the man advantage time, but Watson's second goal of the game with just 24 seconds put it out of reach. Cory Sarich assisted on the tally. Daze pulled a goal back for the Panthers with just eight seconds remaining, but it was nothing more than a consolation for the home crowd.

Manny Legace made 28 saves to earn the win and improve to 5-5-1. Roberto Luongo stopped 18 shots in a losing effort for Florida.

The Capitals are back in action on Day 32 against Pittsburgh at home.