Roloson Blanks The Capitals In His First Game With Tampa Bay

Added on Jan 05, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

Dwayne Roloson wanted to make a good first impression in his first game with the Tampa bay Lightening, and the new goalie did it by blanking Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. They couldn’t have done it with out Roloson, but it was Martin St. Louis who scored 2:54 into overtime to give the lightening the win and the lead in the Southeast Division.

Lightning coach Guy Boucher was happy for his new goalie, and its good for the new team that he got his first win early. He said “I’m happy for him, because when you start well, it makes it a lot easier after. You put pressure on yourself because you want your teammates to like you, and you want people to see what you can do. So he’s done it today. That’s a great relief for him.” Boucher noted that there was a reason they traded for him. He said “We made that trade because we believed that he’s going to improve our team, and certainly tonight he did everything he could do to make that happen.”

Roloson was playing for the Islanders who are ranked 29^th in the NHL, and now he is playing for a team who is on top. Roloson said of the change “Playoff atmosphere, with the crowd, with the teams. A lot of fun to play, that’s for sure, It’s always exciting when you’re playing for a team that is in first place.”

The Capitals hadn’t lost a 1-0 game since March 2, 2004, against Florida before Ovechkin entered the NHL and this was the first 1-0 overtime loss in franchise history. Ovechkin said of the Oldest goalie in the NHL, “He made unbelievable saves a couple times, it was a tough game.” Ovechkin has only 4 goals in the last 23 games.

The lightening have now won 9 of their last 11 games, and they have now found themselves in a 3 way tie with Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Boucher wasn’t sure earlier in the week who would be facing the Penguins, but he mad it clear who would be in the net on Wednesday. “I think I’ll decide right now, how’s that?” Boucher said. “Yeah, so he’s in nets tomorrow.”

The Capitals outscored the Lightning by a combined 12-3 in their previous two meetings, both in November at Washington. Boucher felt that if they could keep the score low, they would have a real chance of winning the game. He said ” I told the players: We wanted a 0-0 game. I didn’t necessarily expect a 0-0 game, but we wanted a 0-0 mentality game, and that’s what we got. It’s rewarding, because we didn’t create 100 turnovers like the last two times.”

The Washington Capitals (23-12-6, 53pts), who are now 2nd in Southeast Division, will face the Florida Panthers (18-17-2, 38pts) on Saturday. The Tampa Bay Lightening (24-11-5,53pts), who are now 1st in Southeast Division will face the Pittsburgh Penguins(25-12-3, 53pts) on Wednesday.