He has played all of 11 NHL games. But at 22-years-old Philadelphia Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is an elder statesman compared to Capitals rookie Braden Holtby. The 21-year-old his first career start on Sunday following his NHL debut Friday night, where he played the last 10 minutes of the game in relief of Michal Neuvirth.
The pair of them – the youngest goalies to start a game this season – acquitted themselves well enough before a sellout crowd at Verizon Center. But it was Holtby’s team that left the ice a winner, 3-2, on an overtime goal by Washington defenseman Mike Green.
Holtby finished with 23 saves on 25 shots, including a critical stop midway through the third period that kept the game tied. Bobrosky, who has become the Flyers’ No. 1 goalie early in his rookie season, saw far more action. He saved 36 of 39 shots, but was beaten by Green 29 seconds into overtime during a 5-on-4 power play.
“In the first two periods I thought [Holtby] looked nervous,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “But once [Philadelphia] started getting some shots in the third period I thought he made a great game-saving save there in that flurry moving from side-to-side.”
Holtby found out he was starting after practice on Saturday morning. He had played the final 10:09 of Friday’s victory over the Boston Bruins when Boudreau pulled Michal Neuvirth from that game. So when did Holtby finally feel comfortable against the Flyers?
“With about five minutes left in the third,” Holtby said. “It was tough going for the first couple periods because you’re thinking so much about [the NHL debut]…and you’re just trying to block that out. Luckily, the guys controlled most of the play and let me ease into it a bit.”
The Flyers opened the scoring at 9:51 of the first period on a pretty goal from forward Nikolay Zherdev, who ripped a shot past Holtby from the left wing. The Caps tied it with 2:31 left in the first when defensemen Tyler Sloan and John Erskine foiled a Philadelphia transition chance and set up Eric Fehr’s third goal of the season.
The Caps didn’t look particularly threatening on two power-play opportunities early in the second period. That proved costly 25 seconds after the second one ended when Ville Leino tipped home a point shot by teammate Andrej Meszaros to put Philadelphia ahead, 2-1.
But Washington made use of its third power-play chance. Nicklas Backstrom corralled a rebound and slipped a pass into the slot to a wide-open Alex Semin, who tied the game at 2 at 8:54 of the second.
