No matter. The Capitals handed out their postgame awards without their captain – a backpack and a helmet this season. When Ovechkin finally arrived his teammates cheered again.
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In a game filled with hitting, phantom penalty calls and great goaltending, the Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 1-0, and advanced to the second round of the NHL Playoffs.
Neuvirth shut out the Capitals for 106 minutes and 72 consecutive saves. With a nailbiting win over the Flyers in Philadelphia, the Caps advance to the next round. Game Six saw much of the same 5v5 domination we saw in Game Five, but with the added bonus of goals!
“It’s great to get a good taste of playoff hockey, ” an upbeat Shayne Gostisbehere said.
Claude Giroux claiming he was healthy in the six-game series against the Washington Capitals is either a white lie or a big problem. “It was unfortunate that we didn’t get that going”. The Penguins won Game Seven, 6-2, to clinch the series. For now, the Caps want to celebrate a hard-fought series win. Frustrated by a pair of losses – the first time all season his team had lost two games in a row in regulation – Trotz figured if Washington played anywhere near the way it did in Game 5 then they would leave with a win.
“I felt good right from the start”, he said. This time, there would be no Game 7 needed.
He says he’s ready to go. “And when we got to 3-0, we were a little surprised ourselves”.
Despite a hardy effort in extending this rather one-sided series to six games, they know that happened only because Michal Neuvirth played the last three games of the series in brilliant fashion.
The Flyers are trying to replicate a feat they accomplished in 2010, when they came back from a 3-0 series deficit to defeat the Boston Bruins on their way to the Stanley Cup Final.
Philly produced only three shots on goal with the two-man advantage.
Washington, which came into the postseason as a No. 1 seed on most favorites lists, has played like it was supposed to in this series.
“It’s huge”, Jake Voracek said. “We were able to get through that”. Their 11 shots on goal were the fewest ever in a playoff game.
But the obvious star of the night, beyond all doubt, was Philadelphia’s Czech keeper who had previously been cast out by Washington, Michal Neuvirth.
Dallas got a break when Goligoski’s shot bounced around the goal mouth. But the former Caps goalie wasn’t going to thwart Backstrom there.
Ovechkin sidestepped a charging bull in Radko Gudas and feathered a pass to Marcus Johansson, who found Nicklas Backstrom for the one bullet Neuvirth could not shield. Earlier in the period, Backstrom sweated in the penalty box. Ryan White took a high stick to the nose. “I was pretty nervous in there”. “We are still a young team we still have a lot to prove but it was nice to squeak in and take a run at it”.
Holtby finished with 26 saves for the shutout.
NOTES: Flyers LW Pierre Edouard-Bellemare returned to the ice after serving a one-game suspension, starting on the fourth line. He was on his game, and he did that all year for us.
“If it’s not for Neuvy, we’re not winning this game”, Giroux said.
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