PENGUINS-CAPITALS GAME 7 RECAP

#4 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (4-3) over the #2 WASHINGTON CAPITALS (3-4) 6-2

CAPSIZED!! Capitals Lay An Egg In Game 7

Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby meet for the traditional post-series handshake (Lets hope this is one of many to come)

(Photo Credit: AP)

by Chris Carrano

Game 7. Those two words can either inspire a team to soar to great heights, or instill enough fear to tuck their tales between their legs. One and done. Leave it all out there. Winner take all. It is one of the most exciting events in all of sports. Unless you’re a Washington Capital fan, Game 7’s are a dreadful experience. In a series that featured six classic games, five one-goal wins, three NHL superstars and two overtimes, one would think that this Game 7 had all the makings of an instant classic. Instead the Pittsburgh Penguins came into our nation’s capital and steamrolled the Washington Capitals, leaving with a 6-2 victory, and a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Pittsburgh took a commanding 4-0 lead after just twenty-two minutes of hockey. Sidney Crosby started the scoring fest at 12:36 with a tap-in goal after Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov initially saved, but failed to cover Sergei Gonchar’s laser blast from the center of the blue line. It didn’t take long for Gonchar, who was injured after a knee-to-knee collision with Alexander Ovechkin in Game 4, to make his presence felt. Eight seconds later, before the PA announcer ever managed to announce the first goal, Craig Adams took a pass from Maxime Talbot and beat Capitals defenseman John Erskine one on one to put the Penguins up 2-0 for a lead they would never relinquish.

Bill Guerin and Kris Letang scored twice in a one minute and forty-five second span to force Washington coach Bruce Boudreau to pull Varlamov in favor of veteran Jose Theodore, who Varlamov replaced in Game 2 of the first round. Guerin ripped a blast from 45 feet away just 28 seconds into the period and Letang’s shot went in short side high at 2:13. “After the third goal . . . he looked really dejected," Washington Coach Brice Boudreau said. "And then after the fourth goal, I think the wind completely came out of his sails emotionally. He's done so much. . . . It just poured out of him. I wish I had maybe [made a change] one goal sooner."

Ovechkin put Washington on the board at 18:09 after Penguins goalie Marc Andre Fleury left his net to play the puck behind him. Ovechkin was right on his tail and when Fleury tried to play the puck along the boards, Ovechkin intercepted and scored into the empty net. There was no lavish celebrating for Ovechkin however, as his team was out of the game at that point.

Twenty-six seconds in to the final period, Washington defenseman Brooks Laich received a double minor for slashing Sidney Crosby. During the penalty kill, Ovechkin skated with the puck into the offensive zone and turned it over to Crosby as he was trying to generate a short-handed scoring chance. Crosby broke away and took the puck down the ice and easily beat Theodore for his second goal of the game and his twelfth of the playoffs. Brooks Laich also scored in garbage time to cut the Penguins lead to 6-2.

Early on in the game, Marc Andre Fleury made a spectacular save against Alexander Ovechkin. It came when Ovechkin had a breakaway chance, and Fleury stretched upward to glove it, much to the dismay of the Washington crowd. Had that gone in, Washington would have an early 1-0 lead and could’ve changed the whole dynamic of the game. That save, Crosby said, sent a message to the entire Pittsburgh team. "You dodge a bullet and it allows you to calm down a little bit," Crosby said. "Marc did an awesome job. He stood tall and was huge for us."

Instead of rocking the red tonight, it was the red that got rocked. Washington could not exorcise their playoff demons and their post-season woes against the Pittsburgh Penguins continue. The Washington fans gave their Capitals a rousing ovation as the final seconds ticked away on a very disappointing end to their season. "It was definitely anticlimactic," Boudreau said of Game 7. "It certainly wasn't the way I would have envisioned it. Whether we won or lost, I never would have thought that we would have ended up in a game like it was tonight."

Said Washington forward Tomas Fleischmann, "When it was 4-0, I just felt like I wanted to put a towel over my head and leave. We were just shocked at what happened."

With this victory, the Penguins march on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive season. They await either the Boston Bruins or Carolina Hurricanes, who play a decisive Game 7 tomorrow night in Boston. Pittsburgh, who back in February fired coach Michel Therrien in favor of Dan Bylsma, did not look like a playoff bound team for a good portion of the season, but they turned that around down the stretch. Now, the Penguins will either travel to Boston or return home to play Carolina to open up the conference finals.

Hard Hits…With all the hype surrounding this series, no one expected to see a Game 7 like that yesterday. It was the Pittsburgh Penguins skating against actual penguins from the National Zoo. The Capitals looked deflated and after those two goals in eight seconds, they lost their will to fight. They had only five shots in the first period compared to the Penguins 16. Simeon Varlamov, who with the exception of last night, has been outstanding in the playoffs, but he cannot be the only player on the ice. What happened to Ovechkin? What happened to Semin, Federov and Green? If Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin cancel each other out, then what you’re left with is the rest of your team, and the Penguins got the goals and the big plays from the rest of their team…Washington has now dropped to 2-6 in Game 7’s…This is also the third time that Washington has lost a playoff series to Pittsburgh after leading two games to none…The two goals in eight seconds scored by Pittsburgh was the fastest ever for a Game 7…The Penguins outscored the Capitals 27-21 in this series and outshot them 256-180.


Title Fight: Crosby vs. Ovechkin
Round 7
Crosby- 2 Goals, 1 Assist, +1, 3 Shots on Goal, 0 Hits, 18:59 Time on Ice

Ovechkin- 1 Goals, 0 Assists, -1, 3 Shots on Goal, 5 Hits, 22:29 Time on Ice

Result: In the final round it was all Sidney Crosby as he led his Penguins to victory by scoring his team’s first and last goal. This round didn’t go the full three minutes as Crosby landed the TKO punch when he stole the puck from Ovechkin and scored an easy breakaway goal. Although the fight was even through all seven rounds, Crosby comes out on top.

Final Fight- Crosby 8G, 5A, 13pts, Ovechkin 8G, 6A, 14pts.

Ducks-Red Wings Game 6 Recap

#8 ANAHEIM DUCKS over the #2 DETROIT RED WINGS 2-1
Series tied 3-3

The Ducks are fighting the Red Wings to the finish

by Andrew Bogusch

Like the Capitals and Bruins in the hours before them, the Ducks survived a Game 6 to push their conference semifinal to the maximum. Game 7 is Thursday night in Detroit. Anaheim stopped Detroit’s two-game winning streak in the series because its best players played their best at Honda Center. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry had a goal and an assist apiece, and Jones Hiller made 38 saves after allowing eight goals in the previous two contests.

“We knew we wanted it tonight. We have a great team in here. We dug down and you [could] just feel it before the game – everybody was ready to play,” Perry said. Red Wing captain Nicklas Lidstrom said simply, “I think they were more desperate than we were. They came out stronger.”

After a scoreless opening period, Getzlaf jammed in a rebound for a power-play goal at 2:21 of the second. Fifteen minutes later, Perry deflected a Getzlaf wrist shot from the left post past Osgood for his seventh goal in nine games. Hiller kept the Red Wings off the board until Johan Franzen scored from the top of the crease with 2:25 to play. That setup a frenetic final seconds, which culminated with Hiller’s last great save of the night. The puck found Pavel Datsyuk alone at the top of the slot. He labeled a wrister for the top corner, but Hiller flailed with his glove to deny Datsyuk.

And that’s when Game 7 officially began. As the horn was sounding after Hiller’s save, Getzlaf and Marian Hossa squared off in the corner with the Duck center landing the majority of the punches. Perry got the better of Brian Rafalski, and Scott Niedermayer thumped Datsyuk. In all 46 penalty minutes were handed out to six players at the 20:00 mark.

Anaheim is 2-1 as a franchise in Game 7, while the Red Wings are just 3-3 in deciding games at Joe Louis Arena since 1991.

Other Odds & Ends…Getzlaf now has 20 points in the playoffs, including multi-point efforts in five of the last seven games…The Red Wings had won the last 13 times they had the chance to close out an opponent in Game 6…Brian Rafalski made his series debut on the Detroit blueline (upper-body injury).

Blackhawks-Canucks Series Recap

(#4) CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS WEATHER THE (#3) VANCOUVER CANUCKS TO WIN THE SERIES 4-2

The Blackhawks celebrate their first Conference Finals appearance since 1995

By Adam Bernard


(First off, my apologies for slacking on the coverage of this series. My work schedule changed for the week last week and it made it impossible to write)

If you watch the Chicago Blackhawks for just one game, it becomes very easy to root for them. They are a fast-paced, hard hitting, fun team to watch, and they're getting better with each game. It wasn't long ago that the Blackhawks were a doormat in both the Central Division and the Western Conference. Now, they're going to take on the winner of the Detroit/Anaheim series for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. It's amazing what can happen in two years.

I predicted the Canucks to win this series in seven games. I thought Vancouver was playing their best hockey of the season and Roberto Luongo was putting the goal judge to sleep in whatever end of the rink he was in. While Chicago's first round win against Calgary was impressive, it was expected. The Blackhawks had no trouble with Calgary in the regular season and any time a team is coached by Mike Keenan, it's likely to make a premature exit from the playoffs. Both teams came in rolling, but I gave the goaltending edge to Vancouver. It's amazing what can happen in two games...

The Canucks dodged a HUGE bullet in Game 1. It's not often you blow a three goal lead in the 3rd period and still get out of Dodge with a victory. More important than the win in that game was the confidence boost the Blackhawks took from it. Yeah, they lost the game, but they were able to rally back with three goals against arguably the best goalie in the world. It almost makes it seem like any deficit could be made up. In Game 2, the Blackhawks once again found themselves behind. This time it was 2-0 after the 1st period. After a three goal 2nd period, Chicago crusied to a 6-3 win. The Canucks cracked down in Game 4 for a 3-1 win to even the series heading back to GM Place. In Game 5, the hard working Dustin Byfuglien scored twice to lead the way and steal another game in the Pacific Northwest by a score of 4-2. The teams were heading back to O'Hare International Airport.

The teams did their best see-saw impression in Game 6, trading the lead multiple times. Midway through the 3rd period, Daniel Sedin put the Canucks ahead 5-4 on the power play. But once again, we go back to that theme of the Blackhawks never feeling they were out of the game. Patrick Kane would tie the game and then Jonathan Towes would give the Blackhawks the lead, and the series. The last three goals were scored in a 1:34 span. It's amazing what can happen in the span of 2 minutes...

When you look up and down the Blackhawks roster, all you see is young talent that is really coming along. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Towes, Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Cam Barker - all of these guys are young with limited playoff experience. Maybe that is the recipe for success for these guys. They don't know any better. They're going out and playing fun hockey at the most important time of the year to be having fun and playing your game. When they do need experienced leadership, they can lean on a guy like Brian Campbell who has made many deep playoff runs. They can look at the Stanley Cup rings on the ring fingers of Sami Pahlsson and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. Speaking of the Bulin Wall, how about the Blackhawks claiming him OFF OF WAIVERS this season. Never doubt a goalie who has carried his team to the promised land in the past (also look up Chris Osgood in that scenario). Chicago is playing THEIR brand of hockey and are taking it to their opponents.

As for the Canucks, goalie Roberto Luongo got cold at the worst time. Some of the goals were saves Lui should have made with ease. It wasn't all his fault though. While Vancouver played solid hockey throughout the series, you can't blow leads in the playoffs like they did. You can't say the Blackhawks were too fast for the Canucks because Vancouver has some good speed on their end. At the end of the day, they were outplayed. Mats Sundin - take a lesson from the likes of Roger Clemens and Brett Favre: you can't hand pick the team you want to win the championship for (scratch that previous statement if Marian Hossa gets his name on the Cup with Detroit this season).

Up next for the Blackhawks is either Anaheim or Detroit. In Anaheim, they'd get the champs from two seasons ago. If they get Detroit, they get to play their most hated rival for at least four more times this season. Either way, Chicago is in a good zone right now and their youthful exuberance should put a little bit of a scare in to any playoff team.

Capitals-Penguins Game 6 Recap

#2 WASHINGTONG CAPITALS (3-3) over the #4 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (3-3) 5-4 OT

Redemption! Steckel’s OT Goal Sinks Penguins

By Christopher Carrano

Say what you want about the Washington Capital’s playoff woes, but with their disheartening post-season history staring them in the face, the Capitals didn’t blink. Washington shoved that all aside, if only for one more night, and left the city of Pittsburgh with an exhilarating 5-4 overtime victory over their nemesis. David Steckel redeemed himself of his wide open miss in overtime of game five, by tipping in Brooks Laich’s shot at 6:26 of the extra period. This series now heads back to Washington on Wednesday night for a decisive game 7. "I think it's going to be great game," said Alexander Ovechkin. "I think the league wants us to play Game 7 [on Wednesday]."


The hometown fans all decked out in white cheered as Bill Guerin put the men in black up early when he, with the help of Sidney Crosby in a 2 on 1 situation, scored at 5:55 to give the Penguins an early 1-0 lead. As has been the custom in this series, with the exception of game five, the team that scores first has gone on to lose the game. Pittsburgh left the period with their lead intact as Washington stumbled out of the gate, having been out shot 18-5 by the Penguins.


Things became interesting in the second period when Viktor Kozlov scored one of his two goals at 6:27. Kozlov placed a wrist shot to the top right of the goal to tie the game. The Capitals took the lead when Thomas Fleischmann skated hard to the net and Penguins goalie Marc Andre Fleury made a stick save on his scoring attempt. That save however, resulted in Fleury losing his stick and the rebound finding its way back to Fleischmann who put it away as Fleury scrambled around to try and make the save. Mark Eaton tied the game on a power play with thirty seconds left to play in the period. It was Eaton’s fourth goal of the playoffs, as many as he had in 68 games during the regular season.


Believe it or not, this game became more compelling during the third period as there were two lead changes to go along with three goals scored in a span of a minute and a half. Kris Letang rifled a shot from the left face-off dot past a screened Simeon Varlamov to regain the lead for the Penguins at 4:40. The Capitals stormed right back on goals from Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov just twenty-nine seconds apart. Capitals defenseman Brooks Laich set up a screen in front of Marc Andre Fleury, bewildering him as Semin’s shot slid by and into the goal. Kozlov managed to score when Penguins defenseman, Hal Gill, ended up behind Fleury in the paint, preventing him from making the save. Kozlov’s soft wrister came from the left side of the goal and deflected off Fleury’s skate and into the net. The Penguin’s own academy award winning actor, Sidney Crosby, tied the game at 4 when he conducted a covert operation deep in Washington’s defensive zone. After Rob Scuderi launched a shot towards the net, Crosby happened to be in the right place at the right time as he snuck up by the crease and tapped the puck into the goal. For the third time in this series the game would head into overtime.


"That's been really the way the series has worked out," said Crosby. "It's been tight hockey. Both teams realize the importance of staying within striking distance. Teams that are up realize the importance of getting that two-goal lead. Everyone is desperate, everyone realizes the weight of the situation.”


At 66:26 David Steckel won a crucial face-off and in the process broke Penguins center Maxime Talbot’s stick. Steckel then took off towards the goal where he was in position to deflect Brooks Laich’s slap shot past a stunned Marc Andre Fleury. "I told myself if I had a chance again, I wouldn't miss," Steckel said. "I was in the right place at the right time. I personally didn't know where it went or anything. ... It was the biggest goal of my career so I didn't know what to do. I just jumped around." The last time a Capital player scored an overtime goal in Pittsburgh was in 2002 when Jeff Halpern did it.


Alexander Ovechkin, always casting an imposing shadow on the ice, did not score a goal but he did manage to have three assists. "It's always fun when Ovie scores, but it's hard because the other team pays a lot of attention and is very close to Ovie, so it's a good thing other people give us goals," Viktor Kozlov said. Kozlov had a stellar night himself, scoring two goals and being named the game’s first star. Washington’s rookie goaltender, Simeon Varlamov, made 38 saves, 17 of them in first period.


These two teams will meet one more time at the Verizon Center on Wednesday night as this clash of the NHL titans goes the distance.


Information from the AP, Washington Post and Pittsburgh Gazette was used in this story.


Hard Hits…A pivotal moment in this game came in the first period when the Capitals killed a 5 on 3 Penguins power play. Washington was so sluggish in that period that they only managed five shots on goal. On the other hand, Pittsburgh controlled the puck most of the period and blasted Simeon Varlamov with 18 shots. It’s amazing that they could not score another goal with the way they were playing. A goal there and maybe we would be seeing handshakes at the end of this game instead of dejected Penguin fans leaving the Mellon Arena…So far in this series, the television ratings have been up. FSN Pittsburgh earned a massive 21.38 rating for Saturday's Game 5, the highest-rated NHL game on any FSN regional sports network. Versus recorded a 1.2 rating during its national telecast of Game 2, making that the highest-rated and most-watched second-round game on cable since 2002. While I’m happy to hear this, I’m surprised that more people aren’t into hockey. I know people who love playoff hockey and there is nothing else like it in any other sport (maybe the World Cup comes close, but that’s every four years), but regular season hockey is just as exciting. I hope more people start catching on to it. I think Versus has done a tremendous job of covering the game but its just unfortunate that a good chunk of our country does not get that channel. If the NHL wants to increase it’s TV ratings, it needs a broadcast partner that can commit to hockey coverage as well as one that most of the country can get. It baffles my mind how only one of these games between Washington and Pittsburgh was shown on national television…Tonight marked the first time that Marc Andre Fleury has lost an overtime playoff game. His record fell to 5-1…This is the third consecutive post-season series that Washington has faced elimination before going on to force a Game 7. All Game 7’s will have taken place in Washington. The Capitals are 2-5 lifetime in Game 7’s. The last time they played in two Game 7’s was in the 1987-88 season when they beat the Flyers in round 1 before losing to the Devils in round 2.

Title Fight: Crosby vs. Ovechkin
Round 6
Crosby- 1 Goal, 1 Assist, +1, 6 Shots on Goal, 1 Hit, 23:07 Time on Ice

Ovechkin- 0 Goals, 3 Assists, +3, 5 Shots on Goal, 2 Hits, 25:52 Time on Ice


Result: Although both players weren’t their usually imposing selves on the ice tonight, they both managed to find the score sheet more than once and they were both named as the other two stars of the game. Crosby and Ovechkin did what they needed to do to keep their teams in the game. I have to rule this round a draw, but Ovie still leads in the cards 48-47. The final round is Wednesday night.