The Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes faced off in
Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at Capital One Arena on
Wednesday night.
It took extra time, and when it was over, it was the Carolina Hurricanes eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions, 4-3, in double overtime.
First Period
The Caps spent little time easing into the contest. Andre Burakovsky was a one-man wrecking crew
in the third minute of the game. He
chased down Lucas Wallmark at the right wing wall and finished a check as
Wallmark dumped the puck into the corner.
He then pivoted and homed in on Brett Pesce, who was having trouble
controlling the puck. Burakovsky
stripped him of it and stepped out through the right wing circle. Faking Trevor van Riemsdyk to the ice,
Burakovsky skated through the low slot and roofed a shot over the glove of
goalie Petr Mrazek and under the crossbar to make it 1-0, 2:13 into the period.
Then it was time for Alex Ovechkin to author a highlight
reel play that stands among the best highlight plays of his career. After both teams completed line changes,
Dmitry Orlov sent a long pass from behind his net to Ovechkin on the Carolina
side of the red line. Ovechkin gathered
in the pass and then backhanded a pass off the side wall at the players’ bench
to free himself from Dougie Hamilton.
Ovechkin raced down the right side through the faceoff circle, beating
Jaccob Slavin to the puck and drawing it around the sliding defenseman. Closing on Mrazek, he fed Tom Wilson for a
one-timer that found the back of the net, and the Caps had a 2-0 lead 6:23 into
the period.
The teams exchanged power plays later in the period, but
there was no further scoring.
-- The teams split 20 shots on goal down the middle, ten
apiece, but the Caps had a slight 21-20 edge in shot attempts.
-- Jonas Siegenthaler led the team in shots on goal with
three; Lars Eller led the team with three hits.
-- Shift time was interesting… On the top line, Ovechkin
averaged 33 seconds per shift; Nicklas Backstrom averaged 30 seconds; and Tom
Wilson averaged 34 seconds.
Second Period
Washington had a chance to put the Hurricanes in a deep hole
when they were awarded a power play in the ninth minute of the period. It would be Carolina that would take
advantage, though. Sebastian Aho
converted his own rebound from the edge of the left wing circle at the 9:51
mark to halve the lead.
The Caps restored their two goal lead less than four minutes
later. Evgeny Kuznetsov eluded two Hurricanes while skating the puck down the
right wing wall. He nudged it ahead to
Carl Hagelin, who carried it into the offensive zone. Filling in the middle behind Hagelin,
Kuznetsov took a return pass and had several options available – a pass to
Hagelin for a one-timer, a pass to his left for a Jakub Vrana one-timer, or
take the shot himself. He dialed up the
last option, snapping a shot over Mrazek’s blocker to make it 3-1, 13:22 into
the period.
Carolina got that one back later in the period when Teuvo
Teravainen collected a sliding puck in the slot, turned, and snapped a shot
through Holtby at the 16:37 mark. That
closed the second period scoring for both teams.
-- The teams were even in shots in the second period at nine
apiece. The Caps had a 19-18 edge in
shot attempts.
-- Five Caps did not have a shot attempt through 40 minutes:
Dmitry Orlov, Jakub Vrana, Chandler Stephenson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Carl
Hagelin.
-- Washington had a 27-18 edge in faceoffs through 40 minutes
(60.0 percent).
Third Period
Third periods have been an issue in this series and all year
long for the Caps, and it took Carolina less than three minutes to tie the
game. Jordan Staal curled through the
right wing circle and wristed a shot that beat Holtby cleanly to the far side,
the game tied 3-3, 2:56 into the period.
Despite some back and forth, and a series-saving swipe of the puck out
of the Hurricane crease by Brock McGinn late in regulation, the teams would
finish 60 minutes tied, 3-3.
Overtime
Tension. Suspense. Pressure. And no goals.
Second Overtime
“Mr. Game 7,” Justin Williams, put the Caps out of their
exhausted misery, setting up the game-winning goal by firing a shot from the
right wing to the Caps’ net, where Brock McGinn redirected it out of mid-air
and past Holtby’s blocker to end the contest at the 11:05 mark of the second
overtime, thus ending the Caps’ reign as Stanley Cup champions.
Other stuff…
-- The Caps leaned heavily on the defensive pair of Matt
Niskanen and Dmitry Orlov. They skated
35:58 and 37:14 in even strength ice time.
No other Capital defenseman skated more than 27:09 in even strength ice
time (John Carlson).
-- The Caps lost only once in the regular season in overtime
when leading after two periods. They are
the only team through the first round to have lost a game in overtime when
leading after two periods.
-- Over the last period in regulation and two overtimes, Carolina
out-attempted the Caps, 52-35.
-- The Capitals never trailed on home ice until the series’
final shot on goal. Not one second.
-- Nick Jensen was the only Capital not to record a shot on
goal.
-- Tom Wilson and Andre Burakovsky led the team with five
blocked shots apiece.
-- Jonas Siegenthaler and Brooks Orpik led the team with six
hits apiece.
-- The Caps fell to 14-17 all-time in home playoff overtime
games. They are now 1-8 in multiple overtime
games on home ice, their lone win coming in Game 2 of the 1985 Patrick Division
semifinal against the New York Islanders (2-1).
-- The power play was all or nothing on home ice for the Caps. They were 2-for-4 in Game 1 and 3-for-4 in
Game 5. However, they were 0-for-4 in
Game 2 and 0-for-3 in Game 7, including a power play early in the second
overtime that, had they converted, would have won the series. The Caps failed to get a shot on goal on that
power play.
-- Braden Holtby finished the postseason with a 2.67 goals
against average. That is his highest GAA
in any of his seven postseason trips.
In the end…
You play an entire 82-game, six-month season, and certain
things are made known, good and bad. The
Caps had two issues this season that were consistently frustrating. They were a team that did not finish games
well, compared to the rest of the league, and they were a lousy faceoff
team. Both came back to bite them in the
end. They took a lead into the third
period, and they coughed it up less than three minutes in. So, overtime.
Then, in the second overtime, they lost a defensive zone draw and never
got the puck out of their own end before Carolina scored the game-winning
goal. Doing the same things the same way
and expecting a happy result in this instance might have been insanity.
There will always be that happy time in early June 2018 when the
Caps became champions and celebrated like no other team, as a team and with
their fans. Nothing ever takes that
away. And while there will be the usual
soul-searching and evaluation of this team, that is for another time. We are sad that it came to an end all too
soon, but these Capitals defended their title honorably. Champions are always champions, even when the
title moves on to another city.
