Junior Capitals Trumped by Thrashers

The Washington Junior Capitals lost their second straight game on Day 37 in a 3-2 setback to the Atlanta Junior Thrashers. The home loss drops Washington to 6-11-1 for the season.

The Capitals came out slowly on home ice, and after just 3:46 the team was shorthanded. Henrik Tallinder was the culprit as he took a charging minor. The special teams did the job on the kill, but several minutes later the Thrashers got on the board. Nielsen scored the goal, his first of the year, from Stepp and Stastny at 9:40. After falling behind, the Caps needed a spark, and Lance Moynch did his best by dropping the gloves with Atlanta's Stepp at 14:16. The result was a draw, but the team picked up its play for the rest of the period.

Unfortunately the good feelings didn't last in the second period. Anshakov struck twice for the Thrashers in the first 6:30 to take complete control of the game. The first came from Dawson and Tremblay at 0:37, and the second got past Daniel Taylor just under six minutes later from Gamache and Nickerson. Trailing 3-0, the Capitals made things even harder for themselves with a pair of penalties, but fortunately the penalty killing unit did the job. Jakub Cutta took both penalties, one for hooking and the other for elbowing. Washington finally got something going late in the second when Igor Shadulov scored his first of the year on the power play from Moynch and Sean Kotary at 1827.

Washington kept pushing in the final period, and Tallinder made it 3-2 from Gennady Stolyarov and Andrew Joudrey at 8:25, but that would prove to be the final goal of the game.

Taylor made 25 saves in a losing effort for Washington. David Tremblay stopped 21 shots to pickup his first win of the season for Atlanta.

The Junior Capitals are back in action on Day 39 in Calgary.