Alex Ovechkin was the biggest name out of the Washington lineup Friday night, but the Capitals also lost Mike Green and Jeff Schultz to undisclosed injuries in the first two periods.

Didn't seem to slow the Capitals even a little bit.

Washington took advantage of two scoring chances in the first 31 minutes and held off the Panthers in the third for a 4-1 victory. Florida came into the game with wins in three consecutive games. Washington had lost three in a row.

The two teams meet again Saturday night in Washington.

``The key to the game was they won every loose puck battle,'' coach Pete DeBoer said. ``They were a desperate team: they lost three in a row, had some players out. We've been on the other end of that. They were hungrier in the tough areas. There's no excuse for that.''

The Panthers had numerous scoring chances early, with Jose Theodore stopping one big shot in the first minute. Washington seemed to have the goal bug as well, with Tomas Fleischmann taking a shot that got past Tomas Vokoun.

The Florida goalie slowed the puck down just enough to allow defenseman Keith Ballard to charge in and sweep the puck away before it crawled past the line.

Vokoun, who had consecutive shutouts, wouldn't be so lucky on the next shot. Moments after Ballard saved a goal, Tyler Sloan charged into the slot and swung away at a nice pass from Chris Clark at 4:53 of the first. Vokoun hadn't given up a goal since late in the second period of last week's loss against Ottawa. Vokoun's scoreless streak lasted 2 hours 47 minutes.

``We weren't that bad defensively, we didn't give up that much,'' Bryan McCabe said. ``Scoring was an issue. You need to score a few to get a win.''

There was a 12-minute delay in the second period when a pane of glass was broken by a shot. It usually only takes a few minutes to replace glass, but workers at the arena took at least 10 minutes to get the replacement pane onto the ice before work began.

``Someone fumbled,'' one arena staffer angrily said. ``It won't happen again.''

Soon after the game resumed, Rostislav Olesz charged in on Theodore and was stopped. Just 90 seconds later, Brendan Morrison made it 2-0 when he whipped a shot above Vokoun's shoulder.

Washington could have added to its lead late in the second, but Vokoun stoned Mike Knuble from point-blank range. Florida got off a couple shots in the final minute of the period but couldn't cut the deficit in half.

Florida had a scoring chance early in the third, but Olesz couldn't get to a puck that had gotten past Theodore. With rookie Michal Repik in the penalty box on a questionable roughing call, the Caps made it 3-0 on Brian Pothier's power-play goal from 25 feet out.

Washington took its first penalty of the night with 10:33 remaining and Florida converted, Nathan Horton banging home a rebound off a long shot from Dmitry Kulikov.

The Panthers wasted a golden opportunity handed to them with 8:18 left when Shaone Morrison was given a five-minute penalty and ejected for boarding Kenndal McArdle and cutting him above his right eye. But Florida couldn't keep the puck in the Washington zone for any length of time during the long power play and didn't record a single shot.

Washington, despite being short-handed for five minutes, did.

``We did nothing. That's one we let slip out of our hands,'' Cory Stillman said.

``We didn't get set up, we did a lot of down-and-backs tonight. . . . We had a chance to come back and tie the score and didn't do it. That cost us the game.''