Seguin’s overtime goal forces a Game 7 in Boston With a record six consecutive Stanley Cup playoff games decided by a single goal, the thinnest of threads has separated the Capitals and Boston Bruins in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Now they will need a seventh game to finish it.
On Sunday afternoon at Verizon Center, forward Tyler Seguin skated around Washington goalie Braden Holtby and deposited the game-winning goal into the back of the net 3:17 into overtime. Just like that, the Bruins had a 4-3 victory and the two teams had a date in Boston on Wednesday night for a deciding Game 7.
Seguin’s goal staved off the Caps, who had tied the game with just 4:52 remaining on a goal by star left wing Alex Ovechkin that had the Verizon Center crowd in a frenzy. In a series in which the only two-goal lead lasted less than four minutes, it was a fitting way to extend it one more game.
“It was the Boston Bruins. They’re not going to go down easy,” Washington defenseman Karl Alzner said. “It was going to be tough. A lot of the predictions at the beginning were Boston winning in six or maybe them winning in seven. We knew it was going to go long. It’s our turn to win it now.”
A core group of Caps players, including Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Laich and Jeff Schultz, will play in their fifth Game 7 since the 2007-08 season. Washington is 1-3 in those playoff games and now has to win one on the road for the first time.
“It’s difficult, but I don’t think it’s gonna be hard or it’s gonna be easy,” Ovechkin said. “It’s going to be a 50-50 game, 50-50 chances. You can see how we play — every game it’s one goal, and this going to be game that win the series.”
Ovechkin’s tally answered one by Boston defenseman Andrew Ference at 11:57 of the third period that gave the Bruins a 3-2 advantage. But with time winding down, Backstrom won a faceoff against Rich Peverley and directed the puck back to Ovechkin, whose hard shot slipped between goalie Tim Thomas’ pads.
“You’re on top of the world when something like that happens,” Alzner said. “It feels really good. You got tons of momentum. We were pressing hard. If we had maybe another three or four minutes in that period, we could have probably scored another one the way we were going.”
But it didn’t happen. Instead, Backstrom tried a pass up the middle early in overtime that was intercepted by Bruins center David Krejci. He dished the puck to winger Milan Lucic, who found Seguin with a pass. One of the fastest skaters in the league, he burned past a startled Dennis Wideman and beat Holtby to set off a riotous on-ice celebration and keep his team’s season alive.
“They came out strong. [Seguin] had a burst of speed there, and he finished it off for them,” Green said. “But it’s not over. We’ve got to go there and take it from them.”
