WASHINGTON - Washington Capitals goaltender Olie Kolzig propped his right elbow on the crossbar after making back-to-back toe saves in the second period last night and just stood there, his knee bent, his hip jutting out as if to make a hip-check. If a stationary pose can convey swagger, Kolzig's did.
It also reflected the new-found confidence of his Caps teammates as they head into a 2 1/2 -day Christmas break after a 3-0 victory over the Southeast Division co-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.
"It was a huge win," said Kolzig, who made 40 saves and earned the team's first shutout since April 5 of last season, when he anchored an 0-0 tie against Ottawa. "We gained two points on Tampa Bay, reached .500 and go into the Christmas break feeling good about ourselves, feeling better about ourselves than we have in the last four or five years."
The victory culminates a six-game stretch in which the Caps have steadily improved while putting together a 4-1-1 run that has brought them within three points of the division lead.
"We've been fighting ourselves much of the season," said Caps captain Steve Konowalchuk, who scored the first goal. "Now we're playing solid defense, getting great goaltending and are on a little run. We're at .500 with half of our road games played. We've set ourselves up for a pretty good second half, if we can take advantage of it."
Konowalchuk's first-period score was followed by goals by Robert Lang in the second period and Peter Bondra, into an open net, with 16.9 seconds left in the third.
It was the 28th NHL career shutout for Kolzig.
Washington (16-16-3) plays here at the MCI Center again Friday against another tough opponent, the Atlantic Division-leading New Jersey Devils.
"It's going to get harder and harder to win," said Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella, whose team is 15-12-5-3. "I thought we played well tonight. We played hard. But going into the second half of the season, we need big goals, big plays."
The Caps felt they had everything on the line last night. They had fallen three games below .500 Dec. 11 at Anaheim, as they struggled to settle into coach Bruce Cassidy's system.
"At that point," said Cassidy, "no one knew in what direction we were going to go."
But that's when players began to get in sync. Instead of lethargic starts, the Caps showed spirit from the opening faceoff. And that's the way it was last night. Washington played with energy, and with a little more than five minutes left in the first period, Mike Grier began the hard work that would get the Caps on the scoreboard first.
For Washington, getting the first goal is a major boost. The Caps are now 10-2-1 when scoring first and just 6-14-2 when they don't.
After carrying the puck into the Tampa zone, Grier dug in along the boards, where he was eventually able to poke the puck clear of two Tampa defenders to Jeff Halpern.
Halpern sent the puck to the slot, where Konowalchuk gathered it in and fired past Tampa goalie Nikolai Khabibulin for what would eventually be the game-winning goal.