WASHINGTON, D.C. – Around the nation’s capitol, the term “ shock and awe ” is associated with military might. The events that occurred Wednesday night at the Verizon Center were even more shocking for the beltway’s hockey fans than a Pentagon-planned nighttime air strike.
Using an all-out blitz that would put any military to shame, the Pittsburgh Penguins , led by the two goal effort of captain Sidney Crosby , eliminated the drama of Game 7 by blasting the Washington Capitals 6-2 to capture the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the two teams by the count of four games to three. The Penguins now will face either the Boston Bruins or the Carolina Hurricanes for the Prince of Wales trophy as conference champion and a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals .
The crowd was certainly loud and the blood was pumping on both sides of the ice as the first period began. The two teams combined for eight shots – four apiece – in the first six minutes as Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and Washington net minder Simeon Varlamov got to shine. Fleury’s best save of the early going was a lightning-fast glove on a shot by Alexander Ovechkin while Varlamov stoned Craig Adams on a golden opportunity down the other end.
Things settled down through the middle portion of the period until Capitals’ defenseman Shaone Morrisonn took a hooking penalty. On the ensuing power play, Pittsburgh was flying all over the Washington end and it paid off when Evgeni Malkin put the puck on the stick of Sergei Gonchar , who was back in the lineup following a knee injury. Gonchar’s half slap-shot deflected off a Washington player and right to Crosby who used his skate to corral the puck and fired it home at 12:36.
The public address announcer hadn’t even started to make the announcement of the first goal when the Penguins struck again. Right off the face-off, Brooks Orpik sent Ruslan Fedotenko into the Capitals’ end. He made a cross slot pass to Adams who put the biscuit between Varlamov’s legs for his first career playoff score and a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead at 12:44.
Varlamov had no time to even think about the back-to-back goals as the Penguins swarmed his end, seemingly beating Washington to every puck and firing shot after shot. A late power play afforded the young goalie a chance to keep the Capitals in the game by stopping a series of point blank shots from Miroslav Satan and Malkin to keep the margin at two going into the intermission.
The Penguins were smelling the blood on the ice and came out in the second looking to deliver the knockout punch they failed to land in Game 6. Just 28 seconds into the second, Crosby drove into the Washington end and laid a perfect drop pass on the stick of Bill Guerin . Guerin blasted a slap shot past the now shell-shocked Varlamov to give the Penguins a three goal lead.
It stayed that way for all of 1:44 before the visitors struck again. At the 2:12 mark, Satan slid a pass to Malkin in the neutral zone. Malkin then made a cross-ice pass to Kris Letang who was heading for the Washington zone. Letang took the puck in and let loose with a drive that hit Varlamov’s shoulder. Varlamov thought he had it and the goal light never went on but in fact the puck had gone in and got caught in the netting.
That fourth goal completely stunned the Washington crowd. It also ended Varlamov’s night as coach Bruce Boudreau replaced Varlamov with veteran Jose Theodore , who had been watching from the bench since game two of the first round.
Things went from bad to worse scoreboard-wise for the Capitals just past the mid point of the period. Jordan Staal showed off his strength and agility, fighting off the back checking Ovechkin and then defenseman Mike Green to get to the front of the net. While Staal was getting loose, Satan was getting control of the puck behind the net. He walked out above the goal line and made a perfect pass to Staal who redirected it past Theodore at 11:37 to increase the lead to 5-0.
The Verizon Center crowd finally had something to cheer about when the Capitals broke the shutout late in the stanza. The play was all Ovechkin as he took advantage of a miscommunication between Fleury and Hal Gill to steal the puck and deposit a wrap-around into the open net at 18:09, sending the game to the final period with Pittsburgh ahead by four.
Whatever hopes the Capitals had of an epic comeback were quickly derailed early in the third. While trying to apply a stick check, Washington defenseman Brooks Laich cut Crosby, drawing a double minor. At the 2:02 mark, Crosby stole the puck from Ovechkin and broke in alone on Theodore. He made a couple of moves and finally went five-hole on the Capitals’ goalie to restore the five goal margin.
Washington was able to push one more past Fleury to give the fans some hope. Laich, looking to atone for his double minor, was able to get to a loose puck and shove it past Fleury on the glove side at the 6:36 mark to cut the lead back to four goals. That would be the last time the Capitals would come close as the Penguins were just too strong on this night and won what should have been a close, nerve-racking game in easy fashion.
Game notes…The eight seconds between the Crosby and Adams goals was not a Pittsburgh team record for quickest two goals in a playoff game. The mark is seven seconds, held by Ron Stackhouse and Rick Kehoe during a 1980 playoff game against Boston…The Game 7 was the first in the young career of Crosby while Ovechkin was playing in his third series-deciding game…Ovechkin and Crosby each scored eight goals in the series. Overall, Ovechkin won the head-to-head scoring battle with 14 points to Crosby‘s 13…Coming into the game, Washington had been 6-1 in the playoffs when the line of David Steckel, Matt Bradley and Laich played together. When Boudreau had separated the trio, the Capitals were 1-5 prior to Wednesday night’s contest…The Game 7 was the 126th all-time playoff series deciding game since the NHL instituted the best-of-seven format back in the 1930‘s. In the first 125, the home team had a record of 79-46. 30 of the Game 7‘s have been decided in overtime…Pittsburgh is now 6-4 overall in Game 7’s, including 3-0 against Washington and 4-0 on the road…For the series, Pittsburgh out-shot Washington in every game with the final aggregate count being 256-180…Washington failed to get a power play chance in the game, finishing the series at 5-for-19. Pittsburgh’s 2-for-4 performance lifted its series numbers with the man advantage to 9-for-34.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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