Kolzig, Capitals Stop Coyotes 2-1

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 17, 1998 / 12:00 AM EST / CBS Sportsline

Joe Reekie dived to get his stick on the puck and stop a 3-on-1 break. Steve Konowalchuk blocked Cliff Ronning's shot from point-blank range. Olaf Kolzig made two saves in rapid-fire succession.

And that was just one power play.

The Washington Capitals, the league's best when it comes to killing off a man disadvantage, stifled seven of eight power plays and got 24 saves from Kolzig in Monday's 2-1 victory over the injury-depleted Phoenix Coyotes.

"It's tough to get something going when you're playing with as much confidence as they are with a man short," Phoenix center Jeremy Roenick said. "I think that took a little bit of momentum away, because the majority of the game was played short-handed one way or the other."

Adam Oates and Peter Bondra each had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who have successfully killed 34 of their last 37 penalties. Their 89 percent success rate leads the league.

In fact, Phoenix had to get a two-man advantage to get its only goal, pulling goalie Jim Waite on a power play to go 6-on-4 in the final two minutes. Mike Gartner netted a goal with 1:12 remaining, but Kolzig made several good saves in the final minute to preserve the victory, his first since Jan. 21.

"Getting the win, yeah, it did exorcise a lot of demons," said Kolzig, winless in nine starts and benched recently in favor of Bill Ranford. "You're in a bit of a losing streak and you think that you're playing worse than you really are. That's what I was doing, putting a little too much pressure on myself."

The Capitals have rebounded from a six-game losing streak to win four of their last five and maintain a tenuous hold on fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The Coyotes, holding on to sixth in the West, have won just two of their last 13 and played without their two leading scorers, Keith Tkachuk and Craig Janney.

The game was Phoenix coach Jim Schoenfeld's first in Washington since the Capitals fired him at the end of last season. Schoenfeld was 113-102-34 in four seasons with the Caps, but he refused to be sentimental.

"People move too frequently in this game to ever get attached to one place," he said.

Oates' goal came on a power play at 17:58 of the first period. Bondra scored his 42nd goal for the season -- and Oates got his 51st assist -- at 12:19 of the second period, the goal coming seconds after the penalty kill that featured Reekie's diving stop.

Later in the period, the crowd roared as the Capitals allowed only one shot during a three-minute Coyotes power play. The man advantage resulted from a game misconduct penalty on Craig Berube, who leveled Drake with one of many cheap shots in a game full of rough play.

There were 67 penalty minutes assessed, and Coyotes center Bob Corkum left with a concussion after a hit by Brendan Witin the second period.

Tkachuk and Janney have accounted for a combined 111 points this season. The team received some heartening news Monday when it learned the ligament in Janney's injured knee is sprained and not torn, which means he could back in about four weeks.

Tkachuk missed his second game of an expected two-week absence with a hairline fracture of a rib.

"They're the No. 1 and No. 2 guys on our first line, so somebody else is going to have to fill that role," Schoenfeld said. "It's going to be difficult, but we have to play the game with fewer mistakes defensively so we don't put ourselves in position to have to come from behind."