The Washington Capitals ground out a hard 2-1 win on the road
last night to even their playoff series against the New York Islanders at two
games apiece. For the second straight game it took extra time to settle the
affair, this time the ending being happier for the Caps.
It was Nicklas Backstrom who settled things 11:09 into the
first overtime on one of the stranger plays of the series. It started with a
faceoff in the Islanders’ end to the left of goaltender Jaroslav Halak. Neither
Backstrom nor John Tavares could win the draw cleanly, but Backstrom was a bit
quicker on the second pull, directing the puck to Alex Ovechkin at the edge of
the circle. Ovechkin got a shot off, but it was muffled by Tavares, whose stick
appeared to break as a result. The puck went to the corner where Joel Ward beat
Johnny Boychuk to it and slid it up the boards to Backstrom. From there,
Backstrom skated the puck up the wall with Tavares in his wake. Tavares had to
drop his broken stick, and he tried to push Backstrom off the puck. That failed
to work, and the push created separation between the two, giving Backstrom room
to fling a shot at the Islander net. Ward created enough of a screen on Halak
that the goalie never saw the shot coming from the right point, and the puck
sailed past his blocker to give the Caps the win.
Before Backstrom’s highlight, the teams exchanged first
period goals. Alex Ovechkin scored what would be the Caps’ first first-goal of
the series 13:06 into the opening frame. Off a Backstrom faceoff win in the
Islanders’ end, John Carlson threw the puck at the net looking for a rebound.
Instead, Ovechkin skated across the slot as the puck was going through and
redirected the puck past Halak’s blocker to give the Caps the lead.
New York tied the game with just 12.6 seconds left in the
period when Casey Cizikas put back a rebound of a Cal Clutterbuck shot that
knuckled just enough to give goalie Braden Holtby difficulty in directing the
rebound out of harm’s way. That would do it for the scoring for more than 50
minutes, until Backstrom would end things in happy fashion for the Caps and
send the series back to Washington tied, the Caps regaining the home-ice
advantage.
Other stuff…
-- Nicklas Backstrom, who had gone 24 consecutive games
without a goal, now has a goal in three consecutive games in this series. It is
the first time he scored goals in three consecutive games since going three
straight, March 16-20, 2014. It is the first time he scored goals in three
consecutive games since he had a three-fer against Pittsburgh, May 6-9, 2009 in
Game 3-5 of that series.
-- With his two-point night, Backstrom took over the league
scoring lead for the post-season (3-3-6).
-- Alex Ovechkin also had a two-point night, his first
multi-point game in the post season since he had a goal and an assist in a 4-3
loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their opening round series in 2012.
-- Ovechkin had 18 of the Caps’ total of 66 shot attempts
and eight of their 30 total shots on goal. Backstrom had five shots and eight
shot attempts, giving the duo 13 of 30 shots and 26 of 66 attempts.
-- The Islanders won the possession battle again, at least
in terms of shots and attempts, out-shooting the Caps by a 37-30 margin and
out-attempting them, 88-66.
-- For the second time in this series the Caps were awarded
only one power play. Only St. Louis, with six power play chances so far, has
fewer power play opportunities than the Caps (7) in the post season. Oddly enough, the Caps won both games in
which they were held to a single power play opportunity.
-- The Caps got the overtime winner, but they managed only a
single goal in regulation, the sixth time in seven games they were stuck on
that number in regulation against goalie Jaroslav Halak.
-- The game might have turned in a 7:12 span of time in the
second period. The Caps took three minor
penalties, giving the Islanders six minutes in power play time. The Caps put on a clinic killing off all
three penalties, allowing the Islanders six power play shots, seven in all over
that 7:12 span of ice time. It ran the
string of consecutive power plays nullified to ten in this series and 13
overall, dating back to the regular season finale against the Rangers.
-- It was a tale of two zones for Backstrom on
faceoffs. He was 7-for-11 in the
offensive zone (63.6 percent), 1-for-8 in the defensive zone (12.5 percent).
-- Braden Holtby had another fine game, stopping 36 of 37
shots. Among goalies appearing in more
than one game, he is second in save percentage (.943) to Chicago’s Scott
Darling (.969). He is the only goalie
having appeared in more than one game whose save percentage against the
opponent’s power play is 1.000 (19-for-19).
In the end…
If the Caps win this series, that 7:12 span of time killing
penalties on the road could very well be viewed rightly as the turning
point. It took the wind out of the
Islanders’ sails, the New Yorkers recording only 16 shots on goal in the last
40:25 of the game following that sequence.
At the other end, the Caps fulfilled the adage that at this
time of year the stars have to play like stars.
Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin did it in ways that are not at the
top of their signature moves list, Ovechkin with a greasy little redirect from the
slot and Backstrom with a whip-like shot from long range through a clot of
bodies hassling the goaltender.
It was a case of winning by any means possible, by going
outside the box to find a way to win. At
this time of year, the easy, tried-and-true recipes do not always and, in fact,
less frequently work. Teams and players
have to find other ways – harder ways – to find success. The Caps did that and took their home ice
advantage back.
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