Hat Stuff! Ovechkin and Crosby notch hat tricks.
(Photo Credit: AP)
by Chris Carrano
It was a landmark night for the NHL as two of its biggest stars, Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, put on an offensive show for the ages. Both had hat-tricks, Crosby’s a mere consolation prize as Ovechkin helped lead his Caps to a 4-3 victory in front of 18,277 red-rocking fans at the Verizon Center. Super Mario himself, NHL legend and Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, was on hand and watched as his Penguins came up short once again.
"Sick game. Sick three goals by me and Crosby," said Ovechkin, who celebrated by bouncing his body high off the glass after both of his third-period goals. "It's unbelievable to see how fans react, how fans go crazy. The atmosphere right now, it's unbelievable in town. You see all the red, and -- probably I'm afraid to go home right now."
Two of Ovechkin’s goals came within a span of two and a half minutes, as he notched the game winner and an insurance goal. With Evgeni Malkin in the sin bin for tripping David Steckel, Nikolas Backstrom won a face-off in the right circle and dished the puck backwards to Mike Green. Green slid a pass to Ovechkin who rifled a one-timer over a sinking Marc Andre Fleury at 12:52 to give Washington a 3-2 lead. Shortly thereafter, Ovechkin found himself in a one on one situation with Sergei Gonchar and he launched the puck right over Fleury’s glove to give him his first career playoff hat trick at 15:22. Ovechkin’s first goal came at 2:18 of the second period. Sergei Fedorov swung a back spin pass to Viktor Kozlov who then dished out to Ovechkin. Ovie then fired a one-timer past Fleury that tied the game at 1. David Steckel scored the other goal for Washington.
Once again however, the Penguins hit the ground running as they blasted Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov with six shots in the first six minutes of the game. Varlamov was able to stop five of them and the one that got by him was a power play goal scored by Sidney Crosby. Crosby set himself up in front of Varlamov and was able to stuff in a tight rebound to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 6:38 into the game. His second goal was much like his first, where Crosby positioned himself in front of Varlamov and stuffed in a tight rebound after Chris Kunitz directed a shot towards the net. Crosby’s third goal came with thirty seconds left in the game while Pittsburgh was on a 6 on 4 power play. With a lot of traffic in front of the net, Crosby swatted at the puck four times before it finally made it’s way past Varlamov. It was too little too late for the defending Eastern Conference champions, as Washington rides into Pittsburgh on Wednesday night enjoying a 2-0 lead in the series.
"It's nice to score," Crosby said. "But it's better to win. As a player, you don't like when the guy on the other team gets a hat trick. That's usually not a good sign." Crosby, also took issue to all the hats being thrown on the ice in reaction to Ovechkin’s hat trick. "People kept throwing hats," he said. "I was just asking if he could make an announcement to ask them to stop. I mean, the first wave came and then I think they were all pretty much picked up, and then more started coming. So for us, we just wanted to make sure we kept kind of moving and kept the game going, wanted to try to get back in it. So I wasn't complaining about anything."
There is certainly no love lost between these two teams. The first period was full of penalties and mini skirmishes. The Capitals wasted a chance at a power play when Chris Clark decided to punch Kris Letang in the face after the whistle had stopped play for a Pittsburgh penalty. Ovechkin got sandwiched along the boards and was shoved around whenever possible; he and Chris Kunitz traded blows in period's final minute. An exchange between Washington's Alexander Semin and Pittsburgh's Brooks Orpik resulted in three penalties -- two of them on Semin. Both teams combined for 18 penalty minutes in the period. Towards the end of the game, Kunitz delivered a "vicious" cross-check to Varlamov in the game's final minute. "We hope the league takes a long look at that," Bruce Boudreau said.
Odds & Ends…Will the real Evgeni Malkin please stand up? Malkin has been absent from these first two games and with this series heading back to the Igloo, he has to step up if the Penguin’s are going to get back in it. The last thing Pittsburgh needs is Ovechkin and Co. going up 3-0. The league’s leading scorer has to step up because Cindy, I mean Sidney, can’t do it all by himself. So far, this looks like an old WWF handicapped match: Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man Randy Savage and Sensational Queen Sherri. And how much help was she?…Washington has found a rare gem in Simeon Varlamov so far. Despite giving up five goals to the Penguin’s in two games (as opposed to seven for the Rangers in six games), Varly does not seem to melt under pressure. He is still making great saves and manages to keep his team in the game. That is going to be necessary heading into Pittsburgh…Ovie isn’t the only one who can score. David Steckel has been lighting the lamp and there’s it goes with out saying that Federov and Semin are excellent puck movers and can score also. Bottom line, Crosby’s supporting cast is going to have to step it up a notch…Crosby’s first goal broke an 0 for 17 slump for the Penguins power play…
Round 2
Crosby- 3 Goals, 0 Assists, +1, 5 Shots on Goal, 21:55 Time on Ice
Ovechkin- 3 Goals, 0 Assists, +2, 12 Shots on Goal, 23:01 Time on Ice
Result: Another evenly matched round, but the edge goes to the Great 8 as he threw more punches (shots on goal) and even got physical when he had to. Oh yeah, he also didn’t complain about hats being thrown on the ice. (Granted it was his hat trick on home ice and only about six hats landed on the ice for Crosby, but still). After two rounds, Ovie leads 20-18 on the cards.
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