When Washington Capitals prospect Stan Galiev was demoted to the Reading Royals earlier this season, the 20-year-old Russian took it in stride. Case in point: during Reading’s 4-2 win over the Florida Everblades, Stas scored such a boss breakaway goal that he ended up on SportsCenter’s Top Ten list on Thursday. Kind of an amazing feat considering ESPN spent more time on Thursday discussing a cut on Carmello Anthony’s non-shooting hand than the NHL lockout.

After an Everglades defensemen blew a wheel at the blue line, the young Russian winger strode in alone and flipped forehand/backhand, forehand/backhand, forehand/backhand before pushing the puck past Florida’s hapless goaltender. It was his second goal of the year.

Nice to know Stas still has the soft hands.

Former NBC Washington sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak moved on to Bristol, Conneticut nearly a year ago, to be an anchor on SportsCenter. This week she returned to her old stomping grounds to do a feature story on Capitals’ captain Alex Ovechkin. Among the things discussed are how Ovi and tennis star Maria Kirilenko first met, Ovi’s response to the Washington Post’s critical story on him published eight games ago, and what he needs to do to take the next step in his career.

The money quote? “I won Stanley Cups on computer games,” Ovi says of hockey’s greatest team award. “Of course I have dreams about it. The most important thing to me right now is to win the Stanley Cup. It’s not to score 60 goals. It’s not to score 100 points. The only thing is the Cup.”

Come on, Steve Levy. Ovi’s no Russian Spy!

Thanks to Kathryn H. for sharing!