Caps make early goalie switch; series tied at 1
Nothing the Capitals do is a surprise anymore.
Down three goals late in the second period to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 of a Stanley Cup playoff first-round series on Saturday night, they somehow rallied to tie the game.
The comeback mirrored two during the regular season against both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks – games the Caps also trailed by three goals late in the second period. But this time Washington added a degree-of-difficulty twist: Shaking off a deflating score with just 5 minutes, 8 seconds remaining in the third period by Montreal center Tomas Plekanec, who by dispensing one nightmare goal after another is quickly becoming the Freddy Krueger of this series.
Instead of collapsing, however, Washington’s ultra-cool rookie defenseman John Carlson tied the game with 81 seconds to go and teammate Nicklas Backstrom sent Verizon Center into hysterics with his game-winner just 31 seconds into overtime to life the Caps to a dramatic 6-5 victory. With the win, Washington evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1 as the teams shift to Bell Centre in Montreal for Game 3 on Monday.
Star forward Alex Ovechkin rebounded with a game-tying goal at 2:56 of the third period and also added three assists. That performance made his no shots, no points effort in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime loss a distant memory. Backstrom recorded a hat trick and had the primary assist on Carlson’s game-tying goal late in regulation. Veteran Tom Poti called the 20-year-old rookie his team’s best defenseman through the first two games of the playoffs. Carlson had a goal and an assist and finished the game a +2.
“Great players come to the fore when you need them,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “It was the same as [forward Mike] Cammalleri did for them tonight – and Plekanec. [Ovechkin] and [Backstrom] and Carlson did it for us.”
On Backstrom’s game winner he took a pass from teammate Mike Knuble and pushed into the offensive zone. Given too much space by the Montreal defensemen, Backstrom whipped a shot past goalie Jaroslav Halak (31 saves on 37 shots) and earned his hat trick in the process.
The Caps trailed 4-1 at 17:44 of the second period when Canadiens forward Andrei Kostitsyn finished off a hat trick of his own with his third goal of the game. But Backstrom answered just 39 seconds later to make it 4-2 and set up a wild third period. Ovechkin scored at 2:56 of the third. Backstrom added another on a beautiful pass from Ovechkin at 9:47 to tie the game.
Then Montreal looked as if it had pulled out a second surprising victory in this series when Plekanec – who scored the overtime winner Thursday – batted home a pass from Cammalleri (three assists) to put the Canadiens ahead, 5-4. On a rush up ice in the waning seconds Carlson whipped a shot past Halak to tie the game and just about lift the roof off Verizon Center.
“I thought I had a pretty good game,” Carlson said. “But these guys all outdid me by a lot. They’re our best players and they showed it tonight. I’m just happy that we won.”
Carlson’s dramatic goal – reminiscent of his game-winner for the United States in the gold-medal game of the prestigious World Juniors tournament in January against Canada – came during a delayed penalty.
“There’s just something about [Carlson] that glory follows him,” Boudreau said. “They come up in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and they’re the ones that do the damage. I think John Carlson in his career is going to be like that.”
It was a memorable moment from a game filled with them. Caps goalie Jose Theodore was pulled for rookie Semyon Varlamov after just two shots – one by Canadiens forward Brian Gionta that knuckled past him from the left wing and the other a defensive breakdown that led to Kostitsyn’s first goal just 7:58 into the game. Varlamov finished with 19 saves on 22 shots, but stopped the first 10 he faced to at least calm his rattled teammates.
Forward Eric Fehr had scored on a breakaway goal at 10:21 of the first period and it looked like Washington was back in the game. It wasn’t. Kostitsyn posted a hat trick with two more goals at 11:06 and 17:44 of the second period, leaving the Verizon Center crowd in shock. That gave Montreal a 4-1 advantage. But the Caps have overcome that deficit before against quality competition. They believed they could do so again.
“We have this side of our team,” Backstrom said. “We just never give up. The second period was kind of embarrassing for us a little bit. But we bounced back and that’s a good thing for us. That’s so important right now and we need these kind of wins.”
