WASHINGTON — There was no Game 7 disappointment for the Washington Capitals this year. Sergei Fedorov’s snap shot from the right face-off circle beat Henrik Lundqvist with 4:59 left in regulation to give Washington a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers Tuesday night, helping the Capitals advance beyond the opening round of the playoffs for the first time since 1998. Washington became the 21st team in NHL history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit, capturing the final three games by out-shooting and out-hitting New York. Last season, the Capitals similarly forced a Game Seven in their opening-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers only to lose in overtime. In contrast to Games 5 and 6, Tuesday’s affair was a defensive standoff, with the Rangers doing a particularly effective job keeping Washington’s skilled forwards on the periphery. The Rangers opened the scoring 5:35 into the game, when Ryan Callahan faked a shot and dropped a pass to Nik Antropov, who beat Capitals goaltender Simeon Varlamov from 10 feet out. Washington tied the game at 15:34 of the first, off a fluky deflection of an Alexander Semin shot. The puck first hit a diving Callahan, then ricocheted off defenseman Dan Girardi and into the New York net. The Capitals gradually fought their way back into the game in the second period, getting excellent scoring chances from Alexander Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov that Lundqvist denied. Varlamov also was equal to the task, making a crucial save on Brandon Dubinsky’s tip-in attempt off a Giradi shot from the right point. The third period was all Washington, as the Capitals outshot New York 13-1. On the game-winning goal, Fedorov led a counterattack with Ovechkin after a Callahan shot went wide. The 39-year-old veteran pulled up near the face-off dot and ripped a shot between Lundqvist’s glove and the crossbar, sending the Verizon Center faithful into a frenzy. Washington will face their hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the second round in a series which has everyone at the NHL office smiling over an Ovechkin vs Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin series. It’s the first time the Capitals have advanced past the opening round since their Stanley Cup finals run in 1998, when they eventually lost to the Detroit Red Wings.
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