In the hardest and longest minute of my entire life, the Capitals were able to hold off a Flyers team with an empty net, and advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the Pittsburgh Penguins await them. At one point, a fan in the crowd at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday was shown on the videoboard holding up a large sign that read simply, “You’ll Choke!”
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The President’s Trophy-winning Washington Capitals were expected to beat the eighth-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in the first round.
The Capitals, who won the series in six games, will play the Pittsburgh Penguins, setting up a marquee matchup of Alex Ovechkin vs. Sidney Crosby.
“We have some bruises”, said Ovechkin, who has 525 regular season goals and 39 more in the playoffs.
Against the Flyers, it was just enough, though.
Teammate Chris VandeVelde did it. Washington forward Nicklas Backstrom went to the box instead. Neuvirth has been up to the challenge, stopping 31 shots in a 2-1 victory Wednesday before making 44 saves for his second career postseason shutout in Friday’s 2-0 win. We have to go into Philadelphia, play really well, and get a win there. “The past is a different regime”, he said after the game.
Braden Holtby had 26 saves for his second shutout of the series. Philadelphia’s average length for shots on goal was more than 40 feet in Game 6, with a staggering six shots traveling more than 50 feet to get to Holtby.
Aided by the period’s only three penalties, the Caps had a 12-5 shots advantage in the first, and Neuvitrth again kept them off the scoreboard. San Jose led 3-0 early in the second period before the Kings scored three goals in nine electric minutes. For 1:55 Philadelphia played with a two-man advantage.
“We just had to find a way to get a goal on the power play”, Flyers captain Claude Giroux said.
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. “I thought our penalty kill was outstanding”. Their PK, they got it figured out and they shut us down a little bit, per say. “He’s made a lot of big, timely saves for us and kept us alive”.
“I believe in myself”, Neuvirth said after the win.
Riding the momentum of Michal Neuvirth in net, the Flyers won two straight games to force an unlikely trip home.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored late in the first period for Florida, and Luongo stopped 49 shots for the Panthers. Center Sean Couturier skated Saturday for the first time since he sustained an upper-body injury in Game 1. In the middle of November, number one defenseman Mark Streit was injured and the outlook seemed even worse for the Flyers. In second came the defeated, but top performing goaltender for the Flyers, Michal Neuvirth. That was true on both ends of the ice at some point during the series. “But it set the tone and we’re not anxious about that slash [anymore] and it’s history, so we can focus on the next game”.
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“I feel like he played a hell of a series”, Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said of Overchkin.
