The Minnesota Wild and Washington Capitals played a pretty high energy game last night at Verizon Center. Perhaps what was most surprising was that there were no fights. The hitting was hard and tempers were definitely flaring, but no one threw down. For a short time I really thought I we might see Roman Hamrlik get into a rare fight by throw down with Setphane Veilleux after Veilleux used some nasty stick express his outrage over Hamrlik flipping him to the ice. But it was not to be.

What was to be was Braden Holtby pitching a shutout, supported with goals by Jason Chimera, Mathieu Perreault, and Alex Ovechkin (who is hungry for more, although I always seem to miss or mangle the focus on the “feed me” gesture). Without Holtby heroics in the first period, he may have just been holding on late. Getting out of the first period 0-0 was the best thing that happened to the Capitals all night, and they have Holtby to thank for that.

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