The high-flying Capitals have been itching to make an appearance. Consider it poetic that it's happening against the Ducks.
The Caps and Ducks have continued to trade goals, but the latter leads 5-4 after two periods.
Corey Perry pushed the lead to 4-2 at 6:21 on a shorthanded breakaway. After the Capitals turned over the puck in the offensive zone, Luca Sbisa intercepted the puck and held it as the Ducks made a line change. Sbisa then feathered a pass down the length of the ice for Perry, who deked past Alex Ovechkin and fired a shot that literally froze Michal Neuvirth, who replaced Semyon Varlamov after he gave up three goals on nine shots in the first period.
But just like in the first period, when the Ducks responded, the Capitals did, too. First, David Steckel scored his fifth goal of the season at 7:52 off of a nice feed from Boyd Gordon. As the energy line cycled, Gordon brought the puck from behind the net and sent a pass to Steckel in front. Steckel would chip it in past Curtis McElhinney.
Less than two minutes later, Alex Semin returned to the scoresheet for the first time since November 28 by finishing a 3-on-1 with Marcus Johansson and Ovechkin. Semin brought the puck into the zone and passed to Johansson, who fumbled the puck a bit, but was still able to corral it and send it back to Semin. Ovechkin got his stick on the puck just enough to find Semin free in front.
The Ducks responded yet again to retake the lead at 5-4 at 13:18. Lubomir Visnovsky's harmless wrist shot from the point ricocheted off of both Nicklas Backstrom and Jeff Schultz and over Neuvirth's shoulder.
The two teams have combined for nine goals on 37 shots with all nine goals coming from different players.