WASHINGTON, DC – Alexander Ovechkin enjoys playing hockey. He really enjoys scoring goals. He gets absolutely giddy when his Washington Capitals win.
Monday night at the Verizon Center, the individual battle between Ovechkin and Pittsburgh Penguins’ superstar Sidney Crosby was a draw as each collected a hat trick. Ovechkin however had the last laugh as the Capitals won the game by a 4-3 score to take a two games to none lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series. The scene now shifts to Pittsburgh for Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma was hoping to see a much better performance out of his team’s power play than the 0-for-5 posted in Game 1. The Penguins got the first opportunity of the game when Washington’s Alexander Semin took a high sticking call at 5:28. Patiently working the puck around the outer part of the umbrella set-up, Sergei Gonchar got open for a blast from the point. Capitals’ goalie Simeon Varlamov stopped the initial shot but allowed the rebound to bounce out where Crosby was standing waiting. The Pittsburgh star pounced on the disc and scored his second of the series at 6:38 to give the Penguins the lead.
Finding themselves down at the start of a game again, the Capitals, thanks to two consecutive power plays, started putting the heat on the Penguins’ defense. Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury did his part, making a solid save on a blast by Ovechkin. At the end of the second power play, Kris Letang came out of the box just as the puck was sailing into center ice. He corralled it and walked in all alone but Varlamov stayed with him and made the save.
Late in the period, Washington took two undisciplined penalties that combined to give the Penguins a five-on-three advantage. Varlamov came up huge in one sequence when he went post-to-post to deny Crosby on a wrap-around and then stopped Gonchar on a hard slapper after the puck got loose following the save on Crosby. Those two saves allowed the Capitals to get out of the first period only down by one.
Washington came out after the intermission and went right to work. A forced turnover in the Pittsburgh end led to a chance for Semin but Penguins’ defenseman Mark Eaton dove to block it away. Moments later, the Capitals’ “Russian connection” hit pay dirt when on a foray, Sergei Fedorov drove the puck into the zone, drawing two Penguins toward him. He made a pass to Viktor Kozlov who in turn feathered a pass to Ovechkin who lasered a one-timer past Fleury’s stick side at 2:18 to tie the score.
The Capitals built a 9-4 shot advantage in the first six plus minutes of the second but Fleury held the fort. Down the other end, Varlamov was tested by Evgeny Malkin with the goalie winning the battle.
Pittsburgh went back into the lead at the 10:57 mark and again it was Sid the Kid on the business end of some hard work by his teammates. Chris Kunitz knocked down Mike Green’s clearing attempt and got the puck down to Bill Guerin. Guerin surprised everyone by taking a shot that deflected off a defenseman, forcing Varlamov to change directions to make the save. Unfortunately, the rebound came out and onto the stick of Crosby who jammed it home.
The bounces finally benefited the Capitals later in the stanza. Following an extended stint of pressure in the Pittsburgh zone, Washington defenseman Brian Pothier let a shot go that Eaton blocked. The puck caromed right to Pothier’s teammate Tyler Sloan who lined up a shot of his own. This one hit a leg in front of Fleury, deflecting to David Steckel who steered it to his stick with his skate and deposited it into the net at 15:49 to even the score again.
The free-wheeling of the first two periods went away in the third. Knowing that the next goal could be the game winner, neither defense was willing to allow dead-on drives as the amount of open ice shrank. Pittsburgh did have the territorial advantage but each team could only muster three shots on net.
Then with 9:11 remaining in regulation, Washington’s Milan Jurcina was called for interference, giving Pittsburgh a key power play chance. The Capitals not only killed the penalty but they were able to draw a penalty on Malkin. It took all of four seconds for Washington to make Pittsburgh pay as Niclas Backstrom won the face-off back to Green who laid a pass across to Ovechkin who blasted it home to put the Capitals up by one with just over seven minutes left.
With the crowd standing and cheering the Capitals on, Ovechkin completed his hat trick with 4:38 remaining. Taking a feed from Kozlov, he drove to the slot and using Gonchar as a screen, he let loose with a wicked snap shot that whistled past Fleury and drew hats from every corner of the Verizon Center onto the ice.
Pittsburgh wasn’t quite dead yet. Washington’s Jurcina took a penalty with 1:41 remaining, giving the visitors one last power play. The Penguins pulled Fleury to create a two man advantage and it worked when Crosby kept banging away and was finally rewarded with his third goal of the game at 19:29. It would be as close as the Penguins would get as Washington was able to hang on for the win.
Game notes…In Game 1, Pittsburgh’s power play had a total of six shots in five chances. In Game 2, the Penguins had eight shots in three chances in the first period alone…Crosby has started the scoring in four of the eight playoff games Pittsburgh has played so far this spring…Of Washington’s 11 shots in the first period, Ovechkin had five. He finished the game with 12 shots on net…In six meetings this season (four regular season games and two playoff games), Washington has outscored Pittsburgh 12-2…Fedorov’s two assists moved him into 15th place on the all-time playoff scoring list just ahead of Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux…Washington’s Varlamov finished the game with 33 saves while Pittsburgh’s Fleury stopped 29 shots.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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