(Photo Credit: AP)
by Chris Carrano
If this game is any indication, this series is shaping up to be an instant classic in the realm of playoff hockey. The Washington Capitals edged the Pittsburgh Penguins in game one of their Eastern Conference Semifinal with a 3-2 victory at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. In a matchup that featured three of the NHL’s top offensive players, it was a twenty-one year old rookie goaltender that stole the show. Simeon Varlamov, turned in an impressive performance, making 34 saves despite allowing two goals get past him that he should’ve stopped.
"The first goal could have rattled a 21-year-old goalie and the second goal could have killed a 21-year-old goalie, but this is the playoffs. You can't really dwell on your mistakes. You've got to forget them quickly," Varlamov said through an interpreter. "In games like this, you shouldn't be hard on yourself even after you allow a softie. You don't have the right to be upset too much."
Sidney Crosby had that first goal a little over four minutes into the game. Crosby, racing down the ice, deked Washington defenseman John Erskine and rifled a wrist shot from in between the circles to put the Pens up early in a period in which they dominated the early half. Pittsburgh had out shot Washington 11-2 at one point. The lead wouldn’t last as Washington center Dave Steckel raced up ice and drove to the net, knocking in a rebound off a shot by Matt Bradley, to tie it up at 13:50.
Alexander Ovechkin, a candidate for the Hart Trophy, scored the go-ahead goal on a 5 on 3 power play after Alexander Semin’s shot drew Pittsburgh goalie Marc Andre-Fleury out of the net to make the save. Ovechkin caught the rebound and buried the puck past Fleury’s stick to give Washington a 2-1 lead at 17:03.
In the second period, Ovechkin turned the puck over to Evgeni Malkin in his offensive zone and Malkin made his way down the ice, battling along the boards to retain possession of the puck. Malkin was able to feed the puck to Mark Eaton who shot a laser right over Varlamov’s glove to tie the score at 2. The defining moment of this game came with two minutes left to play in the period. Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz were barreling down the ice when Kunitz made a cross-ice pass to Crosby to the left of the crease. Varlamov, who was drawn out of position, was able to twist his body around to make an incredible stick save, just as the puck was about to cross the goal line. "It was kind of a desperation save," Crosby said. "You don't want to waste those opportunities." Said Varlamov, “I was out of position, there was really nothing I could do, so I lunged with the stick, and it just so happened the puck hit it right on the line.”
Tomas Fleischmann would score the game winner just 1:47 into the third period. Semin brought the puck into the zone and sent a diagonal pass to Niklas Backstrom, who passed the puck across the ice to Fleischmann. That created an opening, and Fleischmann easily beat Fleury for his second goal of the playoffs. "This team is better," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said of the Penguins. "No disrespect to New York, but we'd have no chance being down 2-0 to be able to duplicate it."
"Our shot total was 36. That's something you like to see at the end of the game," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. "I think we could have added a few more. We had opportunities. We had chances to get some more goals. We didn't get enough to get the goals we needed to win, so we're going to try to get some more from the 36 shots."
Game 2 of this series is set for Monday night in Washington.
Odds & Ends...Dave Steckel scored the Capitals' first goal in May since Joe Juneau scored against Buffalo in the 1998 Eastern Conference finals...In their last five games, the Penguins are 1 for 24 on their power play. And I thought the Rangers were bad...Although Varlamov’s save on Sidney Crosby was correctly ruled a no-goal, why did they decide not to review it? It was awfully close and I though it should’ve merited a review..."He owed us one," Boudreau said after Varlamov’s amazing save against Crosby. He payed back, with interest.
Round 1
Crosby- 1 Goal, 0 Assists, +1, 6 Shots on Goal, 24:12 Time on Ice
Ovechkin- 1 Goal, 0 Assists, -1, 9 Shots on Goal, 21:13 Time on Ice
Result: Although Ovie had a bad turnover, he had spectacular cornermen in Varlamov and Semin to get him back in the fight. Sid the Kid stayed on his feet, didnt give up, but he just couldn;t land the knockout punch. The Lederman Cards have Round 1 scored at 10-9 in favor of the Russian.
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