We are down to the last of our look at memorable goals in
the history of the Washington Capitals franchise. This one sent the Capitals to a place to which they had never been and one to which they have yet to return.
June 4, 1998: “…to go where no Capital has gone before.”
For 14 seasons, the Washington Capitals were the little
engine that almost could. In each of
those seasons, starting with the 1982-1983 campaign, they reached the playoffs,
but there their hopes would founder, undone by a hot goaltender, an inopportune
bounce, or just not being quite good enough.
In those 14 seasons the Caps reached the second round five times and the
conference final once. Never did they
play for the big prize, the Stanley Cup.
The 1996-1997 team would be the one to break the streak of
playoff appearances. Not that it was
entirely their fault. It was a team
wracked by injury. Only Dale Hunter
among 34 skaters playing that season managed to appear in all 82 games. Only Ken Klee among the rest would appear in
as many as 80 games. Only ten skaters
appeared in more than 60 games. The
defense was especially impacted by the injury bug; Mark Tinordi and Sergei
Gonchar missed a total of 51 man-games.
Then there was the mystery of goaltender Jim Carey. A first team NHL all-rookie team goalie in
1995, an NHL first team all-star in 1996, and the Vezina Trophy winner as outstanding
goaltender in 1996, Carey appeared poised to become an elite goaltender for the
Caps for the next decade. However, his
postseason struggles in 1995 and 1996, when he went a combined 2-5 with a 4.62
goals against average and a .816 save percentage, spread into his regular
season performance in 1996-1997.
Carey went 9-6-1, 2.49, .899 in his fist 16 appearances of
that season, wrapping it up with a 27-save shutout of the Montreal
Canadiens. That shutout would be the high
watermark of his season and perhaps for the rest of his NHL career. He lost his next five decisions and would go
8-12-2, 2.93, .889 in 24 appearances before he was traded at the end of
February with Anson Carter, Jason Allison, and a third-round draft pick to the Boston
Bruins for goaltender Bill Ranford, Adam Oates, and Rick Tocchet.
It would be the only major deal that the Caps would make at
the trading deadline in 1997, but it would not be the last of their personnel
changes. In June, following the Caps’
33-40-9 finish, general manager David Poile was relieved in favor of George
McPhee, and head coach Jim Schoenfeld was relieved in favor of Ron Wilson. It was part of a general housecleaning of the
club in advance of its moving from US Airways Arena in Landover, Maryland, for
a new facility – MCI Center (now Verizon Center) – in downtown Washington.
The actual move to their new arena would not take place
until early December of the 1997-1998 season, so the Capitals had a chance to
bid their old digs in Maryland farewell.
Unfortunately, the Caps’ performance leading up to their move looked too
much like their performance from the preceding season. In the season opener, the Caps visited Maple
Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and things got off to a difficult start right
away. Bill Ranford started the contest
as the Caps’ new number one netminder, but he took a Per Gustafsson shot to the
groin in the first period.
Ranford finished the period, stopping 16 of the 17 shots he
faced, but he could not return for the second period. In his place came Olaf Kolzig, a former first
round draft pick who, in parts of six seasons, gave little indication that his
selection as a first round draft pick was justified (14-36-8, 2.99, .891). However, there were hints of things to
come. Starting with a three-game run in January
of the 1996-1997 season in which he want 2-0-1 and stopped 71 of 72 shots (.986
save percentage) with two shutouts, Kolzig had a 2.37 goals against average and
a .910 save percentage over his last 16 appearances. And, there was his playoff
record in relief of the struggling Carey in the previous two postseasons, a
1.87 goals against average and a .936 save percentage, including a 62-save
effort in a four-overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1996.
Kolzig, now 27 years of age, was ready to take the
reins. By season’s end he was tied for
ninth in total appearances (64), ninth in minutes (3,788), tied for third in
wins (33), fourth in save percentage (.920), and tied for ninth in shutouts
(5). And Ranford was the backup, the “Wally
Pipp” to Kolzig’s “Lou Gehrig,” the Caps number one goaltender for the next decade.
Meanwhile, as things were settling down in goal, the Caps
struggled well into the second half of the season. Not even moving into their new arena and
christening it with a 3-2 overtime win over the Florida Panthers did much to
lift them out of their doldrums. When
they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, on March 5th, they were
26-24-11. They were not necessarily in jeopardy
of missing the playoffs – they were third in the Atlantic Division and sixth in
the Eastern Conference with 64 points, nine points clear of the New York
Rangers – but they hardly looked as if they would do much damage in the
postseason once they got there.
It was at this point that first year general manager George
McPhee, whose biggest deal to date might have been to claim Jeff Toms off
waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning in November (he went on to score the
game-winning overtime goal for the Caps in the first game at MCI Center the following
month), made a pair of deals to try to lift the Caps out of their uninspired
play. On March 9th he obtained Esa
Tikkanen from Florida for Dwayne Hay and the always popular “future
considerations.” Twelve days later he
signed Brian Bellows from the Berlin (Germany) Capitals as a free agent.
In Tikkanen and Bellows, McPhee acquired more than 1,900
games of regular season experience and almost 300 games of postseason
experience. Whether the acquisitions
helped the Caps in the stretch run of the regular season, they did not
hurt. The Caps went 13-6-1 after
obtaining Tikkanen, 8-2-1 after signing Bellows. The Caps finished 40-30-12, third in the
Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference’s fourth-seed heading to the
playoffs.
The Caps drew the Boston Bruins in the first round. After winning Game 1, 3-1, behind a 27-save
effort from Kolzig and goals from both Tikkanen and Bellows, along with Sergei
Gonchar, sudden misfortune nearly derailed the Caps before they got any
further. Early in Game 2, Peter Bondra,
who tied for the league lead with 52 goals in the regular season, suffered an
ankle injury that ended his night after five shifts and less than three minutes
of ice time. The Caps lost, 4-3 in double
overtime, and headed to Boston in jeopardy of not having their top offensive
weapon available.
At that point, Kolzig put the team on his back. He stopped 52 of 54 shots in a 3-2 double-overtime
win in Game 3 that was not without its controversy. An apparent game-winning goal by P.J.
Axelsson in the first overtime was waved off for a teammate’s skate being in
the crease. Joe Juneau won it for the
Caps in the seventh minute of the second overtime to end a streak of seven
consecutive postseason losses in overtime by the Caps, dating back to a 5-4
overtime win against the New York Rangers in the first round of the 1991
postseason.
If Kolzig was great in Game 3, he was better in Game 4. He stopped all 38 shots he faced in a 3-0
Caps win, Kolzig’s first career playoff shutout. In Game 5, however, the tables turned. After four straight games in which the Caps
went out to 2-0 leads in the series, they could not muster any goals against
Byron Dafoe, and the Bruins won, 4-0, to send the series back to Boston one
more time for Game 6. For the third time
in the series a game would go to overtime. Brian Bellows ended it 15:41 into
the extra period when his 50-footer skipped past Dafoe to send the Caps to the
second round against the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators finished barely above .500 in the regular
season (34-33-15) and were the eighth-seed in the first round of the playoffs. However, they dispatched the team with the
top record in the Eastern Conference, the New Jersey Devils (48-23-11, the only
team in the East to finish with more than 100 points in the standings), in six
games.
Lightning would not strike twice for the Senators. They looked every bit like an eighth-seed
team as the Caps eliminated them in five games, outscoring the Senators, 18-7,
while Kolzig stopped 134 of 141 shots (.950 save percentage) and shut out the
Senators in Games 4 and 5 to close out the series.
For the second time in franchise history, the Caps advanced
to the conference final. Their first, in 1990, ended quickly and quietly, a
sweep in four games at the hands of the Boston Bruins. This time their opponent would be the Buffalo
Sabres, making their third trip to the conference final in franchise history and
looking to make their second appearance in the Stanley Cup final (they lost in
six games to Philadelphia in 1975). To
get this far to face the Caps they beat the Flyers in five games in the opening
round, and then they swept Montreal in four games in the second round.
If Washington had an advantage in goal with Boston having
used Byron Dafoe, and the Senators using Ron Tugnutt and Damien Rhodes, they
would have no such advantage in this round.
Dominik Hasek tied for the league lead in games played (72) and led in
minutes played (4,219). His 33 wins tied
Kolzig for third place, while his goals against average was fourth (2.09), and
his save percentage was first (.932). He
had 13 shutouts, more than any goaltender in a single season since Tony
Esposito had 15 for the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1969-1970 season.
If the Caps did have an advantage, it was in getting Peter
Bondra back full time. His ankle injury
and then a head injury earlier in the postseason limited him to playing in only
seven of the Caps’ 11 games through two rounds.
Unfortunately, he did not make his presence felt in Game 1 at MCI
Center, but then neither did his teammates, as the Sabres grabbed home ice
advantage with a 2-0 win.
Game 2 was one of the more entertaining games, in an odd
sort of way, in Capitals playoff history.
It happened to be on a night on which President Bill Clinton took in his
first live hockey game. Neither he nor
the fans in attendance would be disappointed (even if the President left
early). Buffalo scored first, in the
last minute of the first period. Then, after
a most of what had been to that point a largely uneventful second period, things
took a turn. With the Capitals on a power
play, defenseman Phil Housley lifted a harmless looking floater toward the
Buffalo net. Hasek reached out to glove
the puck, but it never got there. Peter
Bondra redirected the puck over Hasek’s shoulder to tie the game with five
seconds left in the period:
The careful observer should note, as the Sabres tried to do
with referee Kerry Fraser, that the goal should not have counted. Bondra’s left skate is clearly in the blue
paint when he makes contact with the puck.
Fraser did not overturn the call, and the Caps and Sabres went to the
third period tied, 1-1. That was not all
for the hijinks, though. After Joe
Juneau gave the Caps the lead in the third period, Bondra and Hasek would renew
their acquaintances. With less than five
minutes left in regulation, Bondra was chasing down a loose puck sliding toward
the Sabres’ goal line. Hasek came out to
collect the puck, but he got there just before Bondra. As Hasek was backhanding the puck off the
side boards, Bondra collided with him, sending Hasek tumbling into the
corner. With Bondra turned around and heading
back up ice, Hasek got to his feet and hurled his blocker at Bondra.
It touched off a scrum that involved all ten skaters, but
ended up yielding a power play for the Caps as the Sabres were called for an
extra penalty. Karma being what it is,
the Caps failed to convert the power play, and it cost them in the last minute
of regulation when Esa Tikkanen redirected a puck into his own net on a Sabres
power play to tie the game, 2-2, at the end of regulation.
There would be one more bit of controversy. Three minutes into the overtime period, the
Caps sent the puck deep into the Buffalo end.
What appeared to be an icing infraction was not called as such, and
Andrei Nikolishin got to the puck along the right wing boards. He sent the puck across to Todd Krygier
heading down the middle, and Krygier beat Hasek to give the Caps a split at
home with the 3-2 overtime win.
Games 4 and 5 continued a pattern for the Caps. Just as they did in the opening round series,
they swept those games on enemy ice. In
doing so, they relied heavily on Kolzig in goal. In Games 3 and 4 of the first two rounds,
Kolzig was 3-1, 1.36, .963, with two shutouts.
In Games 3 and 4 in Buffalo, he stopped 57 of 60 shots (.950 save
percentage) and had a goals against of 1.39, winning both decisions, including
a 4-3 overtime win in Game 3.
Unfortunately, the Caps could not close out an opponent in
Game 5 for the second time in three series as they fell to the Sabres at home,
2-1. It set up a return to Buffalo,
where the Sabres had yet to beat the Caps after winning their first four home games
of the postseason.
Game 6 was one of those games that does not need
embellishment or made-up stories about inspiration. Nevertheless there was a backstory to this
game that would have been hard to make up.
Before the game, Ron Wilson used the subject of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon
landing mission for his talk to the team.
For one of the players, the talk might have had special meaning. Joe Juneau played for four seasons with the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute Engineers hockey team, where he compiled 69 goals and 213
points in 124 games. He also earned a degree
in aeronautical engineering from RPI. He
remarked to Wilson that, “I’m a rocket scientist…I’ll be Neil Armstrong,” a reference
to the commander of the Apollo 11 mission and first man to step onto the moon.
As had been the case in this series to this point, though,
it was the goalies who dominated. Olaf Kolzig
and Dominik Hasek stopped everything they saw over the game’s first 33
minutes. Then, Buffalo drew first
blood. Michael Peca one-timed a drop
pass from Dixon Ward past Kolzig with just under seven minutes left in the second
period to make it 1-0. However, on the
next shift it was Hasek’s turn to blink.
Esa Tikkanen redirected a Mark Tinordi shot past Hasek to make it 1-1,
where the teams left it at the second intermission.
Buffalo fans might have thought their team was heading back
to Washington for a series-deciding game when Paul Kruse scored in the eighth
minute of the third period to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead. Peter Bondra put an end to that thinking, at
least temporarily, when he redirected an Andrei Nikolishin feed past Hasek with
just less than six minutes to play in regulation.
Neither team could get that third goal in regulation, so
they went to overtime, the sixth overtime contest for the Caps in 17 games in
this postseason, and the sixth in 15 postseason contests for the Sabres. What had to be scratching gently in the
Sabres’ heads was that the Caps had won both overtime contests in this series
so far, one in Washington and one in Buffalo.
The Sabres looked to end soon, however, but Kolzig stopped a Jason
Woolley attempt early in the period, and he foiled Vaclav Varada on a breakaway
later.
The Capitals would get their chance in the seventh minute of
the overtime…
So many little things often make a big thing. There was Darryl Shannon whiffing on an
attempted pass from his own blue line that allowed Joe Juneau to swoop in and
collect the puck. There was Juneau being
patient not to jump into the offensive zone with teammate Adam Oates still in
the zone, which would have stopped the play on an offside. There was Brian Bellows filling a hole in the
defense and giving Juneau a passing option.
There was Juneau not giving up on the play as Bellows circled in around
Shannon to take several whacks at the puck from the top of the crease. There was the Buffalo defense paying such
close attention to Bellows – three defenders converged on him – that it opened
enough space for Juneau to sneak in on the weak side of the play. There was Michal Grosek frantically trying to
get back to tie up Juneau before Juneau had any chance to jump on a loose
puck. There was Hasek down on the ice desperately
trying to smother the puck with his glove and waiting for help that was too
late to arrive. And there was Juneau, gently
pulling the puck away from one last lunge by Hasek and snapping it into the net
a moment before Grosek arrived.
For the Caps, it was the fourth time in franchise history
that a series ended on an overtime goal and the third straight time they came
out victorious (after losing to the New York Islanders in Game 7 in the opening
round of the 1987 playoffs they beat the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 of the
1988 opening round, and they defeated the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the
second round of the 1990 postseason).
This, however, was different.
This was for the Prince of Wales Trophy, awarded to the Eastern
Conference champion.
Oh, and it was also for a trip to the Stanley Cup final, the
first – and to date, only – time in Capitals history they played in a final.
The Caps would lose to the Detroit Red Wings in the final,
and in one of hockey’s odd ironies, Juneau would be traded the following season
by the Caps to the Sabres. But on this
night in Buffalo in early June of 1998, it was fitting that a rocket scientist
named “Juneau” would send the Capitals where no Capital had gone before, and
that is what makes this goal the most memorable of all.
